Faithfulness - Influence: Becoming the Person Others Want to Follow

Three questions come to mind:
What kind of faithfulness are you talking about here? What exactly does faithfulness look like in leadership? And how can we genuinely demonstrate faithfulness?

Arguably one of the most important attributes of leading is building relationships and connecting with people. What is equally as important is maintaining those relationships.

Relationships are maintained through consistent, practiced effort, loyalty, commitment and sacrifice known as faithfulness. But that’s not the only kind of faithfulness important to leadership.

What Kind of Faithfulness…?
Faithfulness implies commitment and honesty. This means we don’t fudge numbers; we don’t cheat our team; we don’t manipulate others to conform to our own agenda.

It means we are loyal, trustworthy, honorable, and committed to integrity. Faithfulness is consistency in the small things

Faithfulness is wrapped up in forgiveness, humility, service, and sacrifice – the first four traits in this series. All four traits demonstrate a level of faithfulness. Forgiveness and humility state to others: "you are more important than my pride or my power." Service says: "I am so committed to you that I am willing to work to meet your needs without being asked and without reward." Sacrifice declares: "the greater good, your greater good, and overall success is more important to me than my personal gain."

What exactly does faithfulness look like in leadership?
Displaying faithfulness instills that your team can place their trust in you. If you trust in them and believe in their abilities and character, they will flourish. When you limit them, they won’t.

If you aren’t familiar with gold fish, they will grow to the size of the tank you put them in. When confined to a small container, they will remain around an inch or smaller and weigh a matter of ounces. If you set them loose and give them the proper environment, they can grow to over 18 inches and weigh more than 3 pounds.

Believe in your team. Give them a bigger bowl. Let them get creative. If they are not faithful to you, maybe there is a bigger issue at hand.

Once again, our actions display our faithfulness. What does our team see from our personal life and our professional life? Do they see us failing to follow through with commitments to our family members; cheating on our spouse; displaying a level of unprofessionalism through our language, innuendos, emails, or side comments; lying, no matter how big or how small, during a daily conversation, a sales call, or in a meeting; or tweaking a number here or there?

As with the other traits in this series, I am in no way perfect. I can be sarcastic; I can shoot a wry comment here or there; and at times I can negatively express myself or complain. What are some ways you can improve? These need to change. And they will. But they won't unless we admit them and consciously, faithfully work at to grow. We can have honest discussion and approach topics such as faithfulness even while not being perfect. It’s healthy.

And in order for us to grow, we must begin practicing faithfulness regularly.

How can we genuinely demonstrate faithfulness?
Believe in yourself. Commit to a plan. Believe in the process. Believe that you have a purpose and are significant. Believe that everyone around you does and is as well.

Each workspace is different so faithfulness manifests in different ways. Perhaps you need to start by giving your team more autonomy. Maybe you need to give them a safe opportunity to voice their concerns and opinions. Hold a workshop or take a day to do team building. Don’t treat them like robots or resources at your disposal. Be a human being. Treat them like human beings. For other ideas, feel free to shoot me a private message.

Action Step
What are two ways you can grow in demonstrating faithfulness to those around you this week?

Let’s look at it another way. Where can you practice forgiveness, humility, service, and sacrifice?

Your Turn
Please join us in creating a constructive growth environment for all leaders and readers by commenting below. Like and share this post with others so they can benefit as well. As always, thank you for reading and participating!

If you want to grow in faithfulness and need help brainstorming how to do so, I’d love to connect with you. Please send me an invite and a private message.

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Dan loves building relationships and encouraging others. He thrives when learning and sharing that knowledge. As a newly wed, he is greatly enjoying this period in life as family takes second in his "Five F's" (see profile). Dan has led various sales teams, served as president of multiple organizations, and coached in athletics. He has presented at leadership conferences and workshops. Dan currently works as a Director of Sales and mentors a group of high schoolers who are looking to grow and excel.

For other posts in this series: Please visit this page.

Copyright ? 2015 by Dan Rosenblatt. All rights reserved.