Why would anyone follow you as their leader if you didn’t control the financial reins on their bank accounts and mortgages?
The CEO was stumped.
He had never thought of that before: what if all my employees were volunteers? Why would they follow me if they weren’t being paid?
Here is how James Kouzes, the long-time leadership development researcher and co-author of The Leadership Challenge, responded to that intriguing question in a radio interview with Kate Ebner on the Voice America Business Channel.
“They would follow you because you build trust.
“You foster collaboration.
“You model the way, set a good example, challenge the process, are clear about your values, your vision for the future, and your ability to enlist others in your vision.
“You make other people feel strong and capable.
“And you search for opportunities to grow, innovate and improve.”
To help you as a leader develop that trust and collaborative spirit that would inspire your employees to follow you even if they weren’t being paid (at least in the short run), consider savoring the 77 Leadership Mints — bite-sized ideas to freshen your feeling for leading in LOVING Like a Leader available on Amazon.com.
LOVING Like a Leader, With Empathy — the second book in the Leadership Mints Series -develops your emotional intelligence to better listen and relate to others with compassion, connection and conviction. Readers savor 77 Leadership Mints, bite-sized ideas that like a candy mint are quickly accessed and immediately refreshing your feeling for leading.
And the data is depressing: 7 in 10 of your employees are disengaged -and cost American business $500 billion in lost productivity -according to Gallup.
That empathy then fuels a trust that triggers greater productivity and profitability over time.
That’s why their on-going pursuit of interdependence between— leaders and followers, speakers and audiences, managers and their employees (and relay track team members) — is featured throughout The Leadership Mints Series in 
The four-star general in the United States Army –all 6-foot-3 and 240 pounds of him – was scared. Not on the battlefield. After all he led the US coalition of troops from 30 countries to victory in the Persian Gulf War in 1991. No, General Norman Schwarzkopf was even more scared of unarmed men who couldn’t or wouldn’t cry. “Frankly, any man who doesn’t cry scares me a little bit,” Schwarzkopf admitted to Barbara Walters on ABC television’s 20/20 program in March 1991. “I don’t think I would like a man who was incapable of enough emotion to get tears in his eyes every now and then. That person scares me; he’s not a human being.”
LEADERSHIP MINTS PUBLISHING 