People Follow You: The Real Secret to What Matters Most in Leadership

Most of the time, people are motivated to work hard for a person, more than an organization, a paycheck, or a great benefits package. This is what lies behind the book's title: "People Follow You."

If you're in a leadership role, then knowing how to get people to follow you is essential to your success. It's also the only lasting way to get your team's best work and loyalty.

And, this is what "People Follow You "shows you how to do. This book provides a simple, actionable set of guidelines for motivating your team, building trust, communicating effectively, and creating an atmosphere that allows your team to develop and grow. It shows you how to make leadership personal, and develop the kinds of relationships with your team that benefit everyone, including you.

"People Follow You" is mainly aimed at middle and high-level managers. However, if you aspire to lead others one day, you'll learn a lot from this book as well.

Jeb Blount is the author of five books, and he's the CEO of SalesGravey.com, a popular website for sales professionals. He's a frequent global speaker and consultant on leadership and sales.

So, keep listening to find out why your team is more important than you are, why you should always check your bad mood at the door, and how emotions can help build trust and team spirit.

"People Follow You" is broken up into eight chapters. And, it's only 143 pages long. This, along with the author's conversational and quick writing style, makes it a pretty easy read.

Chapter one starts out by explaining why poor leadership is so damaging to organizations. And, we've already made a case for this so we'll move on to chapter two, which covers the seven essential principles of leadership.

The author starts out by defining the three activities leading, managing, and coaching. He says many of us use these terms interchangeably, but they're markedly different. And, we need to be proficient in all three of these areas.

When we lead, we shape the workplace through vision, innovation, and inspiration. We inspire people on an emotional level to make our vision a reality.

When we manage, we shape our work and projects through a system of organizing, planning, and directing.

When we coach, we continuously develop people through training, observation, and feedback in real time, while we're at work.

We liked that the author provided these definitions right up front. And, we agree that people in a leadership role really should be proficient in all three areas. You may not spend a lot of time in one area, depending on your role, but you definitely need to know how to perform all three activities if you want to be an asset to those you're leading.

The author next outlines his seven principles of leadership. Think of these as general guidelines leaders can use daily. We won't go into all seven here, but we'll cover a few of our favorites.

One of them is the first one, titled "You Need Your People More Than They Need You." And, we agree with the author that this is an important lesson that all managers need to learn early on.

The title of this principle says it all. Unless you understand that you need your people more than they need you, and truly take it to heart, you'll never be a great leader.

Think about this scenario. Imagine you show up at work on Monday morning, but none of your people do. One person is sick, two are on vacation, and someone else has to tend to a sick relative. You'd probably be okay getting work done that first day. But what about Tuesday, or Wednesday? What would your organization look like by Friday? If none of your people showed up, within a few days your department or business would be in shambles.

But, what happens if you don't show up for a week? Chances are, the work would get done just fine. This is why the author says your people are more important than you are.

A core trait of bad bosses is they believe they get paid for the work they do, that they're more important than the people they lead. But, the author argues the opposite is true. Bosses get paid for what their people do. Your people are essential.

If you can take this first important lesson to heart, you'll already be a step ahead of your competition.

Another one of the author's seven principles we liked was number three, titled, "You Are Always On Stage."

When you're in a leadership role, your people are always watching you. They analyze your words, behaviors, and facial expressions, and then interpret them using their own perspective.

So, if you come into work stewing over a fight you had with your spouse that morning, your team will likely interpret your bad mood as a reflection on themselves, or something they said or did. And the results of this can sabotage a day's work.

The author gives an insightful example of just how this can play out in a team, and it will definitely make you think twice about bringing a bad mood to work.

In chapter three, the author outlines his five levers of leadership. While the seven principles of leadership are reminders of how to lead well, the five levers offer a framework for action.

Now, some of these you've likely heard before, and most are common sense. But they've been written about before with good reason. These five levers are just good leadership practices.

The first of the five levers is to put your people first. Putting aside your own needs and desires for those of your team members is one of the quickest ways to build trust and loyalty.

Another of the five levers is to position your people to win. Remember, you get paid for what your people do. So, do whatever you can to set them up for success. Focus on training, coaching, and giving feedback, so they can get better at what they do. Pouring your time and energy into their success will make them realize that you want what's best for them. And, they'll quickly learn to trust your motivation and initiatives.

The other three levers are: connect, build trust, and create positive emotional experiences. There may not be anything new in this chapter, but all the advice here is good, and worth repeating.

This is just as well, as the next five chapters in the book cover each of the five levers of leadership in more detail.

Chapter four explores the idea of putting your people first. And, the author starts off this chapter with an inspiring real-life story of Dane Scism, CEO of one of the most successful cell phone retail companies in America. He's credited with transforming his company so that his people are put first, all the time.

Scism believes that if you trust in your people 100 percent, you'll find they make pretty good decisions. And he's put that idea into action. Everyone on his sales team gets to pick their own schedules using innovative software, and they can choose the manager they want to work under. Those are just two of the initiatives he's created in his company to show he cares about his people.

So, how can you put your people first? The author gives us several ideas, one of which is to be likable.

Your likeability makes a huge difference to how people relate to you, and how your message is received. Likeability is the gateway to good relationships.

Of course, this doesn't mean we need to try to get everyone to like us. The author actually puts a large warning in this chapter about the danger of trying to please everyone.

Being likable means pushing your people to do their best, having the courage to make the right decisions, and being friendly and open with your team. The author says it best this way: a leader who seeks to be liked will fail, while a leader who seeks to like will find that people respond in kind.

There are several other ideas in this chapter for putting your people first. Some of these are to flex your style, be polite and respectful, be confident and courageous, and act with kindness. The author goes into all these behaviors in detail, and tells several real-life stories that illustrate how painful it is to work for leaders who don't behave like this with their team.

Another one of the five levers we enjoyed was the fifth lever, in chapter eight, titled, Create Positive Emotional Experiences.

The author opens this inspirational chapter with a wonderful story. When Shirley took over her department, morale was lowest in the entire company. People would do just about anything to get transferred out of the department.

So on the first payday after she took over the reins, Shirley had everyone's paycheck sent to her office. Then, she went around and hand delivered each paycheck, thanking the person personally for the work they'd done. Soon, she began writing a short thank you note to deliver with each paycheck. These included recognition of an accomplishment each person had achieved that month.

Within a few months, Shirley's department was transformed. Morale was up, and it didn't take long before people stopped trying to leave. Word spread, and soon there was a waiting list of people who wanted to get in to the department, just so they could work under Shirley.

All of this was because Shirley took the time to create positive emotional experiences for her team. This helps anchor the relationships we have with our team members, build trust and loyalty, and improve morale.

Creating a positive emotional experience for your team simply means you go out of your way to be kind and make them feel good. We feel this is an incredibly important lesson many people forget or ignore when they step into a management role.

Every day, you have the opportunity to be kind to your team and create a positive emotional experience for them. One of the best ways to discover opportunities to make a real impact with your team is to listen. When you really listen to what your team members say, they'll pick up on your attention. They'll start to open up more and will reveal things that are important to them.

Once you discover areas or issues they care deeply about, you can create a positive emotional experience that will resonate with them on a very deep level.

The author warns here that your efforts won't always pay off. Some people won't respond to your kindness. Others will try to take advantage of it. But, the majority of your team will be moved by what you do. And, they'll want to reciprocate.

So, what's our last word on "People Follow You"?

We thought it was a good book with some very valuable lessons. The author did a good job sticking to the point and not getting wrapped up in making the text too long, just to hear himself speak.

If you've read a lot of other books on leadership, then you'll likely have come across most, if not all, of these principles before. There's nothing new or groundbreaking in this book. So, for regular readers of leadership literature, it could be a bit wearing.

But, that doesn't mean it's a book you should skip. All the leadership lessons here are valuable, and if you take just one of them to heart and change a behavior then you'll be better for it. These are lessons that many leaders have lost sight of along the way, and they're worth picking back up.

The book works best as a reminder, especially if you're a busy manager, of how to create bonds with your team and build long-term trust. And if you're a newer manager who hasn't read much about leadership, then most of these lessons will be eye opening.

"People Follow You," by Jeb Blount, is published by John Wiley and Sons.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Click here to buy the book from Amazon. Thanks for listening.