Episode Details

Why should anyone choose to follow you?

For Larry Robertson, that deceptively simple question gets to the heart of leadership.

In this episode of Thought Atlas, I sit down with Larry Robertson, a leadership advisor, former British Army officer, author, and executive coach who says he has spent more than three decades working with leaders in around 30 countries.

Larry’s understanding of leadership began during his time in the British Army. As a young officer, he was placed in charge of a platoon of 32 men, many of whom were older and far more experienced soldiers than he was. He had the rank, but he quickly realized that rank alone could not make people genuinely want to follow him.

That experience shaped one of his central ideas:

“Leadership is not about position, it’s about disposition.”

We explore the difference between having authority over people and earning genuine influence. Larry explains why trust, respect, involvement, and having a shared purpose matter more than simply having a title.

Having worked across different cultures, Larry also reflects on what he believes is universal about leadership. While cultures differ, he argues that relationships ultimately come down to mutual trust, mutual respect, and mutual purpose.

Larry also shares lessons from the very different environments that shaped his career. He grew up in Scotland, studied at Cambridge, traveled around the world, worked in mines in Western Australia, served for six years in the British Army, and later moved into advertising. His time in advertising exposed him to a much more diverse and meritocratic environment than the Army he had known, teaching him about the connection between diversity and creativity.

We discuss his transition from advertising into leadership advisory work and the process of self-analysis that helped him determine what he wanted to do next. Larry describes spending 30 days examining his strengths, weaknesses, interests, and values before identifying leadership, teamwork, people, outcomes, and making a difference as central themes.

From there, he developed an approach built around two lenses: clarity and humanity.

Clarity means understanding who you are as an organization, why you exist, where you’re going, how you’ll get there, and what success looks like. Humanity means understanding yourself and the people around you—then finding ways to engage, involve, and inspire them.

We also explore Larry’s distinction between information, influence, and inspiration. In his words, leaders don’t simply give people information; they influence and inspire people to do something together.

And Larry has some unconventional advice for leaders: take what you do seriously, take the people you work with seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously.

Ultimately, this conversation asks a fundamental question about leadership: what experience do people have when they interact with you?

Because according to Larry, leadership isn’t simply about getting people to do something.

It’s about helping others succeed—and recognizing that when you help others succeed, you succeed too.

Larry’s book, Why Listen to, Work With, and Follow You? The Three Qualities of True Leaders, is available in print, ebook, and audio formats.

Learn more about Larry’s work at Robertson Burns.

Listen to Thought Atlas: joinpodmatch.com/thoughtatlas