I’m 26 years old I’m currently an undercover detective I’ve recently been told that I’m being promoted to sergeant over our departments Investigations Division I’ve been the youngest person to hold that position in our departments history all the guys I’ll be in charge of our much older some in their late 40s how do i as a younger leader lead them how do you demand and earn respect from an older group I’m ready for the job and know what the job entails but I’m nervous to lead a group of nine people that are all older than me so I’m I’ve answered this question over and over again and I’m gonna do a quick job of it here just because people may not they have gone back and listen to all the other podcasts but you have listened the answer is always the same and it’s always the same whether you’re a young person leading old persons whether you’re an old person leading young people whether you’re a woman leading men a men leading man leading women whether you’re coming in from a different department into a new department that you don’t know anybody whether you’re going into a thing that you don’t have experience it’s like all the same basically what it is you’re going into a leadership position yeah that’s what it is be humble listen take advice build relationships keep your ego in check also that one of the reasons I pulled the did pull this question I was like how do you demand respect well the answer is you don’t demand respect and if you don’t if you do demand respect you’ll get anything but respect from people mm-hmm so so get that out of your head you earn respect and how do you earn respect you respect them in this case you respect their experience you respect their knowledge you respect it they’ve been doing it for a long time you have respect for it and when you show respect for them they’re gonna respect you back now none of this means be passive hmm right this doesn’t mean cower down no you you still have to lead you still have to step up but it does mean be humble be open-minded be proactive listen ask questions ask for opinions de-centralized all aspects of operations including the planning which we already talked about and then with all those things set a high standard and then the final and most important well I don’t know it’s equally important I’d say work harder than everyone else and expect nothing in return mm-hmm that’s it yeah that’s it you’re the boss you better be it you better be at work before everyone and you better be leaving work after everyone and that’s how you develop a reputation of being a hard worker and being a hard worker in its own right Garner’s respect from most people there’s there’s a fraction of losers that are like Oh Ecco he works so much it’s it’s so lame like no like cuz I’m making them look bad or something yeah yeah yeah yeah like there’s a small fraction of people that that might think that way but but no you work hard you you put in the time you put in the effort you study you read what you’re supposed to read you get the professional knowledge that you’re supposed to get you don’t impose that on people yeah you have it because you’re your book knowledge when you start off in this situation your book knowledge isn’t as strong as the experienced guys in this case you know in the in the law enforcement the guys that have been in the streets they know stuff that you don’t know yeah so you study what you can but you keep an open mind so you can listen to what their experience says yeah don’t impose on them when you say don’t impose it on them does that mean don’t impose them like make them it’s like them echo section for two alpha of the documents says that we’re supposed to use this methodology when we do this yeah you should know that methodology you should understand why that methodology is important but if you say hey jogo we don’t do it that way and here’s why I shouldn’t I’m telling you by the book it’s by the book now if it’s by the book because it’s there’s an ethical reason okay well then that makes sense but it’s by the book because that’s what the book says by the book yeah yeah or you know the guy who’s like who works extra hard but he kind of in a way throws it in everyone’s face how are you that that’s that’s an important thing it’s a very important piece don’t you don’t step on people’s toes with us yeah that’s wrong yeah don’t do that yeah check
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