Employees want a leader they can believe in. So what’s the best way association bosses can inspire faith and loyalty from their staff?

A new piece in Entrepreneur suggests that empathy for colleagues should be top of mind for any leader.

“Your job is to step into everyone’s shoes and find ways to make the path less treacherous, stressful, and demoralizing,” writes contributor Rehan Ijaz. “A leader is in service to those around them; the best ones serve others so consistently that their team takes it for granted.”

While showcasing empathy, leaders also need to project an air of confidence so their status as the boss isn’t diminished. But that confidence shouldn’t be a smoke screen.

It’s important that bosses take great efforts to educate themselves about the work of the organization.

“Confident leaders serve their team best by being well-informed, current, and aggressively prepared,” says Ijaz.

Check out the rest of the post for more.

Chapter Guidance

A Creative Way to Align Your National and Local Chapters by @amaleahijar https://t.co/8kk3rCdKxI #assnchat #assnprofs pic.twitter.com/HuJxhCRCxe

— Sidecar (@sidecarglobal) March 2, 2017

Many associations with state and local chapters grapple with how to keep the different entities aligned.

Amalea Hijar from Association Success says her solution to this common conundrum is to create and distribute project guides. These guides—or toolkits—consist of materials to instruct a chapter on campaigns, challenges, initiatives, goals, and more.

Hijar makes sure to include input from local chapter leaders while creating the guides.

“The idea is to leverage efficiencies and ensure the toolkit aligns with the mission, vision, brand, and member value proposition that your association wants to filter down to the local level,” writes Hijar.

Other Links of Note

Creative solutions: Partners Preceptors shares a few clever ways to build effective teams.

Infographic of the day: VolunteerMatch busts some common myths about public service announcements.

Make your story come to life. Marketing Zen shares a few great examples of experiential marketing and how you might be able to apply them to your organization.