How to win respect as a leader?

Are you or your brand in a leadership role or seeking one? Do you have the respect of your staff and clients?

The secret of how to win respect as a leader is summed up in a simple idea, ‘create peace’.

Clearly if you are the leader of a country, this is a much more onerous task, depending on the part of the world in which you find yourself. On the flip side, you might say, I own a business or I am CEO of an average sized charity, how is peace relevant?

If you think about it though, peace is about harmony, a state that only occurs when people are working together, with a shared vision and value system. When you have peace you open more channels to reach more people. If you are warring (on any level) with people or other brands, you only serve to create an us and them situation. People ultimately choose sides and you minimise your market.

If that feel is too idealistic and hard to achieve, I have an exercise for you to do…

Hi. You know normally I like to give you just one little task to do in my marketing tips. But this time, I want to give you multiple tasks to do because I want you to have a good look at your audience and really divide it up.

I mean really divide it up.

Don’t just put them simply into two or three high-level categories. Look at them in as much detail as you possibly can and really start to give some individual personalities to each one because not all audiences are created equally but by the same token, all audiences should be treated equally.

And that’s the fact of the matter if you want to be good in marketing, good with your brand no matter whether you are a business or a not-for-profit.

Treat every single audience member, every single client that potentially comes through the door or actually comes through the door as someone who is equal in standing, because that kind of authentic approach will differentiate you. It gives that human element to it.

Don’t just turn people away because you are making assumptions about what they may or may not be and quite often and more often than not I should say. People do that on their websites where they make massive assumptions about what people want.

Try and have a good close look at your marketing this week and see if you are indeed making those assumptions.

Treat people instead with equal authority and equal appreciation of who they are and what they might need.

It is a well-known expression, people do business with people. It’s a nice thing to say, but how is this relevant? Simple, every individual wants to be treated with respect. I don’t really care what you said to the last person who walked through your door, I care about how you treat me.

One thing is for sure, people will always surprise you. It is when you least expect something that is can appear for you. A forced sale is a hard road and does not lead to a lot of repeat business. Taking them time to understand someone first then problem-solving, even if you direct them to a competitor, is what an authentic leader does.

Take business networking groups who operate on the principle of referring to one another. Anyone who has been successful in doing this will tell you it doesn’t happen because you keep calling your friends and colleagues saying I really need to get a client for this business, are you interested? It happens when you listen to people and have in the back of your mind, how can you help them solve whatever problem it is they are prepared to discuss with you.

What you don’t know is who other people really know. The impression you make today can lead to something different in the future because you treat every person with respect.

More often than not marketing is a long term strategy. Raise awareness for your brand, positioning it to meet the needs of your market. If you continue to build, so to will the potential for your brand to grow. The conversation you have with someone today, could be the link to someone far greater down the track with them or a connection of theirs.