Leading at Light Speed is an excellent leadership book by Eric Douglas showing you step-by-step how to implement 10 Quantum Leaps that build trust, spark innovation, and create a high-performing organization.

Quantum Leap #3 is all in regards to how to Lead Through Others.

Imagine you’re flying on an airline with an open seating plan like Southwest. You’ve found yourself an aisle seat. The middle and window seats are open next to you. What do you do when people pour down the aisle searching for a spot to sit down?

If your orientation is toward other people, you make eye contact, inviting them to take the seat next to you. But if you’re not oriented toward other people, you avoid eye contact, keeping your face buried in a newspaper. Perhaps you place a section of the newspaper on the chair beside you. When someone takes a seat next to you, you take a glance at them, recoil, and let them fend for themselves.

This "Southwest Test" might not look like much. But it says a lot about who you are and your ability to lead through other people. A lot of information is transmitted in those few moments – am I a person who can be counted on to look out for other people? Or am I a primarily looking out for myself? It goes without saying which type of person is better able to build trust – and who triggers people’s cheater meters.

"Type A" managers can create anxiety in the workplace which will exhaust people's energy. Effective leaders lighten the pressure in ways that help people learn to trust one another. Psychologists call this ability to regulate pressure “systemic stress management."It's why sailors get shore leave, why people get holidays, why organizations throw parties.

At Lehman Brothers, where hundreds of highly paid broker-dealers manage the daily ebbs and flows of the stock market, their Friday afternoon get-togethers are a chance to let off steam. One executive once said, "If you don't bring food to the office, people will always go hungry.” Lehman gives people yet another reason to appreciate the company’s level of attention and care.

At the Intel campus in Roseville, California, people let off steam by taking part in volleyball games during lunch hour. Players fill the two sand courts everyday. A pickup soccer game occurs on a field nearby.

Gregory Kolt, a professor of psychology at Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand says, "To maintain a high level of focus is fatiguing". He says the trick is to attain enough idle diversions so that you can improve your focus at the perfect time.

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