This is a short interview transcript of a YouTube conversation between Chris Collins and Andrew Bustamante about what leadership means and how to get people to follow you. Bustamante defines leadership as getting people to follow you because they want to, emphasizes authenticity (genuineness) as the primary ingredient, and contrasts authentic leadership with mere charisma or fabricated personas (including an HUMINT/espionage analogy).
What is your definition of leadership?
Leadership is difficult. My definition of leadership is when you can do something and people want to follow you, when they're doing it because they want to do it, then that's leadership. And I don't think that everybody can lead everybody else. We end up convincing ourselves that we're a bad leader if people don't follow us. There's lots of people out there that won't follow you. Because if, according to my definition, if you're only leading the people who want to follow you, there's plenty of people who don't want to follow you. Right. And they're never going to see life through the same lens that you see life. They're not going to see the battlefield, they're not going to see the opportunity. They're not going to see the. The objective that you see. So it's like the Spartan 300 story. Not every Spartan went up against the Persian empire. It took 300. Those 300 were all volunteers working against the promise or working against the decision of the Senate at the time. And they were led because they wanted to be led by the person who was leading them. And that's what led to their success. Right. Granted, they perished, but their memory is their legacy has lived on and will live on forever. So my definition of leadership is if you can lead the people that want. If people follow you because they want to follow you, then you are a leader.
What would you say the most important ingredient, or the three top ingredients are in getting people to follow you?
Being authentic, right? Being genuine and sincere is what gives people trust to pursue the same thing that you're pursuing because they believe that you and them are aligned. Right. There's a lot of what human intelligence. Not human intelligence like brains, but human intelligence. Spy work, like spy world stuff is called intelligence. Humint is called human intelligence, and that's secrets that come from people. A lot of the human intelligence operations world is based around fabricating authenticity in order to capture the attention of somebody who has secrets. And then that loyalty that they develop to you because they follow you because you're their leader, that loyalty is so powerful that they end up compromising the secrets that they were trusted to keep. But for you, you're not being genuine. You've just created an artificial Persona and you've managed your authenticity so that they believe you are who you present yourself to be. That's what being undercover is really all about. It's all about having the opportunity to fabricate a relationship, simulate a relationship specifically to get intelligence so that you can keep Americans safe. That's, that's the secret sauce is in making it seem authentic and real. If it seems, if you're disciplined or if you're courageous or if you're strong, those things all work too. But the real magic is someone who's disciplined and strong and courageous. Authentically is what makes people follow them.
How would charisma fit into that? Or what is your thought on charisma?
Charisma is an interesting thing because charisma is something that gives us familiarity. Charisma is candy, right? Charisma is sugar. If somebody, if, yeah, if somebody is good at what they do and they're genuinely good at it, you don't need charisma. If someone is truly authentic and you just like them. How many friends do you have who are not charismatic, right? I'm sure you have plenty because you're just. They're a real person. They're a genuine good person. They're a genuine. They see life the same way I see life. They care about the same things I care about. They're kind of a. I have a friend who I call a social hand grenade, right? Edwin, a good buddy of mine, he's a total social hand grenade. You take that guy anywhere, he's going to say something that pisses half the room off.
You always need that guy with you. You always need the guy that'll do that or jump on the table or drink too much. It makes it more fun. I always try to make sure I invite somebody like that whenever there's something going on.
But I would. I mean, I'd follow Edwin into battle any day of the week, right? He is an authentic, genuine person. Now when you have that authenticity and charisma layers on top of it, that's a powerhouse. But when you have somebody who has no business being a leader, but they also have charisma, that's a dangerous combination, right? That's diabetes in the making right there.
That's your soda pop and your, you know, all of your sugar laced sauces and all the stuff that's causing weight issues in America right now, right? That's sugar with no substance. The same thing happens in leadership. Someone who's no substance in all charisma is a dangerous person.
Thanks so much for watching this clip of Service Driving Revolution. We're uploading new stuff every day, so make sure you subscribe and click the bell icon so you don't miss out. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, call 8333 Ask SDR and we'll answer your question on the show. That's 8333 Ask SDR. For special deals on our books and training, head over to offers.chriscollinsinc.com now that's offers.chriscollinsInc.com I'm Chris Collins and I'll see you in the next video.
