Mmmmm.....
True leaders earn the respect of their followers. From a gained respect they develop more following. In civvie street, very few individuals are leaders, because this is a generation of no respect. How therefore can a corporate manager today lead, because the majority of them have no respect for themselves, nor others. See it, live it, witness it every day. It comes from the top where our political masters are such a lot of useless tossers, that it is mirrored and replicated throughout civilian strata. Take the banks, the politicians, the youth, the education systems of today. I feel for the OP, because it must be a bit of a shock coming out of a structured and organised way of life, to the 'civilian way'. As he rightly highlighted he would not change a thing, because it had made him what he is today, respect!