Trust Is Earned, Not Given
6/23/2026
Most people assume leadership comes with age. That the title means the credibility already exists. That if someone is young in a senior role, there must be a catch.
Charles Sharp has heard that assumption his whole career.
Today, he's the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Pride Industries, the nation's leading employer of people with disabilities, with operations nationwide. He didn't get there by waiting for people to believe in him first.
On the Unleashing Leaders podcast, Ep. 51: Leading in High Positions at a Young Age: Overcoming Doubts from Others and Yourself, host Lee Scott, Founder and Chief Change Agent of Unleashing Leaders, sat down with Charles to talk about what it actually takes to build credibility when the room isn't ready to give it to you.
The Assumptions Start Before You Open Your Mouth
By his early thirties, Charles was a national vice president with direct reports twenty years his senior. The pushback wasn't always loud. Sometimes it was a comment at the end of the day. Someone telling him they had "spilled more liquor than he had ever drunk." A joke, sure. But the message underneath it wasn't.
His answer wasn't to argue. It was about showing up and delivering.
"Just stick to the facts and what we need to get done," Charles told Lee. "Over time, people say, well, the kid is kind of factual. He pushes actions forward, and we're getting things accomplished."
That's the game. Not winning the argument. Stacking the wins.
Lee put it plainly: there is a difference between a position and leadership. A title gives you responsibility. Credibility is earned by demonstrating results and modeling the way.
The Two Fears That Keep Young Leaders Stuck
In leadership development and coaching, two fears surface again and again with emerging leaders. Charles named both without hesitation.
The fear of making a mistake. And the fear of looking stupid.
On mistakes, Charles was direct: "The first thing you have to know is that it's going to happen." Not might happen. It is going to happen. A former boss of his drove that home during a high-stress stretch by pulling Charles aside and asking how his family was doing, by name. When Charles confirmed everyone was fine, the boss said, "All right, then. This is just work."
The company was here before you. It will be here after you. That perspective frees a leader to make decisions from intention rather than fear.
On looking stupid, there is an ironic twist. The instinct is to stay quiet rather than ask a question and expose a gap. But when someone comes in prepared and says they are looking for a thought partner, that does not expose a weakness. It builds their credibility and makes the other person feel genuinely valued. It tells them their experience matters and that you are not trying to go it alone.
"When you ask a thoughtful question," Lee said, "the person receiving it is going to feel honored."
Come in with genuine curiosity and some homework already done, and the dynamic shifts entirely.
Social Capital Is Real Currency
At an executive education series at the University of Chicago, Charles sat in a room with leaders from global banks and major international institutions. Before the session started, a man near him was talking, unaware that the acoustics carried sound throughout the entire room. A young woman was up front, setting up the laptop. He made a comment about her needing to hurry things along.
When she introduced herself, she laid out her credentials without blinking. Yale. University of Chicago. Harvard. She had heard everything. And she handled it with complete grace.
What she said that day stayed with Charles. She told the room, "There is a reason your phone rings at 5 p.m. when you leave work. People want to talk to you. They want to be around you. Bring more of that to your day job."
She called it social capital. Relationships built through genuine investment before you ever need anything from someone become the actual engine of how things get done. People respond to your messages. They show up when you call. Not because of your title. Because of how you made them feel.
Charles proved that to himself. At a previous organization, employees could sign up for brown bag lunches with executives. One colleague had none. Another had one or two. Charles had five sessions, 250 people, because of how he showed up every day. When he asked the first group why they chose him, the answer stopped him cold.
"You smiled at us. You said hello every day. You remembered our names."
That is it. Not a strategy. Not positioning. Just basic human decency, shown consistently. It does not cost anything. And it compounds.
For the Veterans in the Room
Charles did not let more experienced leaders off the hook.
When you are the one who has been around, your job is to help the people coming up see how far they have come, not just how far they have left to go.
He used the image of climbing Mount Everest. Most people fail not because of the cold or the equipment, but because they spend the entire climb looking up at what is left. They never stop to look down and recognize the distance already covered. The same thing happens in organizations every day.
Celebrate the progress. Recognize the wins in real time. When something goes sideways, take a breath before responding. Get the full picture. What a leader says in those moments carries more weight than they usually realize.
And when someone on your team is moving with confidence and getting things across the finish line without needing constant check-ins, that is the sign. That is what an unleashed leader looks like. They are not waiting for permission. They have been trusted, and they are operating like it.
Leadership is not a solo sport. Whether you are the one proving yourself in a room that was not ready for you or the one with the experience to help someone else find their footing, the work is the same. Show up with curiosity. Invest in people before you need them. Let mistakes be data, not verdicts.
The credibility will follow.
To hear the full conversation with Charles Sharp, listen to Episode 51 of the Unleashing Leaders podcast.
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