Does this scene sound familiar: You’re standing in a full conference room. Papers highlighted with yellow surround your laptop, which has multiple tabs open, full of notes and data. Someone asks you a question – a clarification on a piece of the presentation or statement that was just made. You quickly begin to flip through the data, the experts, and the rules to support the point, hiding behind the armor of someone else’s authority. Many of us have been there; performing, not leading.
Now is the time to step out from behind the authority of others to seize our own and stand firm in it. It’s time to stop borrowing credibility. It’s time to trust that our lived and earned experience is enough.
You didn’t land here in this place by accident or happenstance. You earned it. You worked hard. You have the education – formal or otherwise – to get your foot in the door. You started at the ground level, learning the ropes in the early days of your career. You gained wisdom and skills.
You don’t just know what you’re sharing now because someone else wrote a paper you dug up in a search. You know it because YOU have the expertise and experience to make the statement. No one did you a favor putting you in this job. You earned it. Own that.
When we talk about building trust, we often think about building trust among our team. Sure, getting others on board is an important component of successful leadership, but we’re talking about something different here. You need to trust yourself. It’s a choice to stop borrowing credibility and to trust that your lived and earned experience is enough. (And it is!)
Need a jump start in this department? Take a moment to look back on your accomplishments. Recognize what you have done. Catalog your strengths and skills. Separate yourself from it and weigh the question “Would I trust a person with these credentials to have the expertise needed to make these decisions and lead?” And then realize that the person with those credentials is you.
Yes, good leaders need to establish trust with their team. Good speakers need to build trust among their audience. You need others to believe what you say is true and to be willing to execute that vision or plan. They won’t if you don’t believe it first. And they won’t if you do believe it but don’t sell it with confidence.
Fumbling for proof to support your assertions, leaning on someone else’s authority, these things we do when we are trying to prove our authority instead of owning it, these things chip away at our credibility. The more you stand in your own clarity, the more others will lean in. The more you trust yourself, the more you will be trusted. Make confident decisions. You earned the expertise you’re using to inform that choice. Trust it and make the call.
Owning your authority and recognizing your earned expertise doesn’t mean you’re closed off to growth. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. You got where you are today because you were able to take new experiences and the wisdom of others to evolve your own understanding and skills. Don’t stop doing that just because you’ve settled into a leadership role.
Good leaders keep growing. Good leaders still make mistakes. They still work among teams. They still look to others for ideas and sparks. They succeed because they trust what they know enough to keep learning more. They also encourage those around them to do the same. Leading with authority isn’t about having all the answers – it’s about being confident in the answers you do have, and in your ability to adapt and grow to learn the things you didn’t know.
If you’ve been hiding behind the authority of others, stepping out in the light of your own is going to be uncomfortable at first. Your voice may shake. You may second-guess yourself. But the more you stand in your own clarity, the more others will lean in. The more you trust yourself, the more you will be trusted.
This is when everything shifts. Leadership will stop being about proof, and start being about presence. Are you ready for the change? Where in your life are you still hiding behind the rules, when what your people need most… is you?
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