It is not always up to the leader to think of new ideas or changes, but it is their responsibility to lead a new change. When a highly effective leader influences a new change, they inspire their people to take on that change as their own.

When we help others, we are helping ourselves. This happens all the time, not just sometimes.

Did you know that when we view another person helping someone, there is a chemical reaction in our bodies that makes us feel good. We might not know the people or have anything to do with them, but just witnessing this act of kindness naturally makes us feel good.

It also happens when someone decides to help us, this chemical naturally responds in us to make us feel good. When we help another person, it happens then and this is when we mostly feel good, in my experience anyway.

When you help another person and you make them feel good, your influence with them will increase.

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They may not remember exactly what you did to help them, but they will always remember how you made them feel and that is why your influence increases. If you make a person feel bad, then your influence with them will decrease.

I have worked with many people in my career, a lot of them leaders, but very few highly effective leaders. From 2021 to 2024, I worked with a leader called Michael and he was my boss on a rail project.

I was close to him, and we were in constant contact every week to make sure we both had everything we needed to do our work. But most of all, Michael wanted to know how I was and if there was anything I needed from him. He was always the first to offer help to me, and every member of the team.

Michael caught up with every member of our team every week to make sure we were all ok and if there was anything he could do to help us. This was every day and every week, not just on one-off occasions. This is who Michael is, he naturally cares for people.

The reason I noticed this right away from working with Michael, and the reason I am talking about him now is because I am very similar. I love to help people, and I love making people feel good.

Michael seems to be able to do this with a lot less effort than me, so I learned a lot from him when it comes to naturally helping someone. These things are noticed by a lot of people, but they may not always be talked about.

Michael is a highly effective, servant leader. Whether it is at home with his family and friends, or it is with his team at work, he can sense when someone needs assistance and has the natural ability to assist them.

He will even offer assistance when he knows they don’t really need it, it’s those little things that make a massive difference.

Michael is a role model to me and others, and I want to be the same kind of role model to others. Being the first to offer help is so important when developing yourself into a highly effective leader.

The biggest differences are made when the littlest of actions are taken.

The things that get noticed by people are the simplest of gestures. It could be helping somebody to hold their umbrella when it is raining. It could be helping a person who is struggling to get their shopping into their car or open their front door because of how many shopping bags they have.

It could be opening the door to a building for someone or picking up something that they have dropped on the floor. These little things make a big difference to people.

Highly effective leaders naturally want to help others and be the first to offer help. Are you willing to do the same so you can develop into a highly effective leader? Are you willing to help others so you and they can feel good?

The reason I am writing this article is because I want to be the first to help you in becoming the highly effective leader you have the potential to be. I want to help you realise that you have the natural ability to influence and inspire others to do the same.

I want to help many people from all over the world that I will most likely never meet. But you and the other people who read this article are very important to me because we can all increase our influence, lead and help others no matter what age we are.

If you are ever having a bad day and you want to know how to turn it around, the best way to do that is to help another person.

When you do this, you will naturally feel good, and more importantly so will the person you have helped, which in turn will make you feel even better. You can start to help others right now, so why not get started and take action right away with the people around you?

When I was going through my engineering apprenticeship, I used to love to help on the factory floor when building the assembly lines to cut car engines for Ford, Jaguar, and Mitsubishi, to name a few. I used to love to assist the more experienced engineers where I could, even if they didn’t need help.

I didn’t know then that helping them was making them and myself feel good, but it did get noticed. The people I helped would give a good report to my boss for me and would ask for my help more often when they needed it.

That is what I mean by getting noticed for your help, it opens more opportunities for you to help and make more people feel good.

You could be in the workplace and a fellow colleague may need your help but doesn’t know how to ask. If you notice this, are you naturally going to help them? Would you be willing to offer your assistance and guidance? Leadership is influence and influence is leadership.

Leadership can be taught, but it is more developed from within.

When I moved to Scotland to start my role as an engineering production manager, I was very surprised at how many times people were not willing that willing to help another person because it “wasn’t their job.” This happened in a lot of places where I have worked, not just in Scotland.

But this is where I noticed it happening quite a lot. So, I did my best to lead by example to try and change some of these attitudes. I did my best to be the first to offer help when it was needed, and when it wasn’t.

If I was walking past an engineer working on a train on his own, and I could tell that he needed help being handed a tool or holding a ladder, then I would go over and help.

If I saw one of the facilities technicians cleaning an area and they were struggling, then I would go over and help sweep up or clean a specific area with them.

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This was noticed by people, so they would start to do the same and that got noticed also. It is the little things that make the biggest differences to people because you help them and make them feel good.

Especially when a person thanks you and you can tell in their voice that you have made a difference in their lives, or just brightened their day up.

Hearing that from people makes you feel even better, so why would we not want to be the first to offer somebody our help when they needed it, or even when they didn’t?

If you can make someone smile with the littlest of things to help them with, I guarantee you will feel great.

You cannot become a highly effective leader by accident. When helping others you will become a highly effective leader on purpose.

I welcome hearing how this post has influenced the way you think, the way you lead, or the results you have achieved because of what you’ve learned in it. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me by commenting below.

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All the best,

Tom (Lead, Grow, Influence)