You Might Be Someone's Turning Point and Not Even Know It

There is a kind of leadership that does not show up on a resume or get celebrated in a boardroom. It happens in quiet conversations, in the moments when someone looks at another person and says I see what you are capable of, even when that person cannot see it yet. It is one of the most powerful things a leader can do, and most of the time the person doing it has no idea how much it matters.

I know this because it happened to me.

Who Is the Art in Your Story?

Years ago I was working for a man named Art. He had been my supervisor when I first joined the organization, and over the years he had watched me work, seen how I led, and come to understand what I was made of in a way that I had not fully understood about myself yet. When my husband and I were preparing to move to Utah with our newborn, Art asked me something that stopped me in my tracks. He wanted to know if I would consider starting a satellite outreach of the organization there, leading it from the ground up as the director.

My immediate internal response was no. Starting something from nothing, building a nonprofit, being the one responsible for all of it felt like more than I had. I told him honestly that I was not sure I had the ability or the experience to pull something like that off.

And Art looked at me and said, yes you can. You have everything you need to do this.

He did not just encourage me. He saw something in me that I could not yet see in myself, and he said it out loud. That distinction matters more than it might seem.

What Happened on the Drive Home

I drove home that day turning his words over in my mind, and I remember praying and sitting quietly with what he had said. In that stillness I felt God begin to remind me, one memory at a time, of experiences I had navigated, things I had built, moments I had led through that I had not connected to this opportunity until right then. Piece by piece a picture started forming, and I began to see what Art already saw. That all of those experiences had been preparing me for exactly this.

I said yes. And what grew out of that decision was an outreach where teenage moms and dads, some of the youngest and most overwhelmed leaders of all, found mentors and people who believed in them during some of the hardest seasons of their lives. Lives were genuinely transformed because someone showed up and said you can do this. None of it would have happened if Art had not first said those words to me.

The Ripple Effect of Building People Up

This is what makes building people up so powerful and so important. It rarely stays contained to one person. When you invest genuine belief in someone, when you see them clearly and tell them what you see, you are not just changing their day. You are potentially changing the direction of their life, and through them the lives of everyone they go on to lead, serve, and love.

The people around you right now, your team members, your kids, your clients, your colleagues, some of them are sitting with a quiet voice telling them they cannot do the thing that is right in front of them. They are doubting themselves in ways they might not even be saying out loud. And you might be the person who has just enough perspective and just enough relationship to say the thing that shifts everything for them.

What This Looks Like in Practice

Building people up the way Art did for me is not about being overly positive or telling people what they want to hear. It is about paying close enough attention to see what someone is actually capable of and being willing to say it specifically and honestly.

It sounds like noticing when someone on your team handles something really well and telling them exactly what you saw. It sounds like looking at someone who is hesitating at the edge of something big and saying I have watched you and I think you are more ready than you feel. It sounds like asking someone what they need instead of assuming, and then actually listening to the answer.

These are not grand gestures. They are small, intentional moments that cost very little and change everything.

Why This Is Leadership Work

It can be tempting to think of encouragement and belief as the soft side of leadership, separate from the real work of building a business or leading a team. But the leaders who build the strongest teams, the most loyal client relationships, and the most meaningful businesses tend to be the ones who understand that people are not just resources to be managed. They are human beings who grow when someone believes in them, and they do their best work in environments where they feel genuinely seen.

When you become a leader who builds people up with honesty and intention, you stop being someone people work for and start being someone people grow with. That is a completely different kind of influence, and it lasts far longer than any strategy or system you will ever put in place.

Think about one person in your life right now, at work or at home, who might need someone to see them clearly and say it out loud. Then go do that for them this week.

If you are looking for a community of leaders who are doing this kind of intentional, honest work together, I would love to invite you to join The Nudge Community. It is a space where founders, business owners, and professionals show up for each other, keep growing, and build something meaningful without doing it alone. You can learn more here.

P.S. Are you wondering how you show up under pressure as a leader? Take my free Leadership Style Quiz and find out. It takes just a few minutes and gives you real insight into your patterns and how stress might be shaping the way you lead. Take the quiz here!