Your team will reward you with great trust when they experience your ability to make them better. People want to follow a leader that they know will help them develop and achieve greater success. Think about it, no one wants to follow a leader who is unable to produce results. No one wants to be part of an organization that is stagnant. Deep down inside we all want to win in life and in business. People want to be part of winning teams that are making a significant impact in the world. So even when a great relationship among the team and the leader exists, it is not enough to keep momentum going if there is a lack of trust in the leader’s ability to make things better. It is an issue of competence. When respect is aligned with competence it equates to trust. However, when respect and competence are misaligned it equates to distrust. A leader must lead the ship as the crew trusts him or her to get to their destination. The more competent you are as the leader the more trust your team will give you to lead them. And when they give you trust, they’ll give you heartfelt effort along with it. The true mark of a leader is in the fact that they create a winning environment for those around them.

You may remember the movie “Titanic,” produced by James Cameron in the late 90’s. There is a classic scene when the mammoth ship is sinking in which a small orchestra is playing background music on the deck as the people are fighting to survive. The band plays all the way until the very last moments before the ship completely sinks into the Atlantic Ocean. This depiction of the musicians in the movie is actually a true representation of what happened that dreadful night.

The eight member orchestra was made up of second class passengers who were contracted out by the British shipping company, White Star Line. They boarded at Southampton ready to perform their best. Little did they know that this would be their last performance. After the ship hit the iceberg and began to sink, the musicians assembled together to play background music in the lounge to calm the passengers. As the ship sank deeper into the Atlantic they moved out to the forward half of the deck boat and comforted the masses with beautiful masterpieces as the passengers boarded the lifeboats. They musicians all went down with the ship playing until the very end. In his book “The Valiant Musicians, World Military Bands,” Jack Kopstein wrote this quote from one of the second class passengers recount of the experience, “Many brave things were done that night, but none were more brave than those done by men playing minute after minute as the ship settled quietly lower and lower in the sea. The music they played served alike as their own immortal requiem and their right to be recalled on the scrolls of undying fame.” This heroic act of bravery displayed the heart of a true leader. They truly gave their all to create a better environment for the passengers even in the midst of chaos. These men understood the importance of using their ability to make things better for those around them.