Yet if you build upon your team and create mutual trust, people will follow you and work really hard. That's the rewarding part of the job.
Regarding higher-ups, you have to choose wisely, most of the time it's very difficult because you give them what they want, but it costs a lot of time, energy and money.
Be pedagogic, explain, and explain. The most difficult part is when you want to take action that doesn't give reward instantly (CI/refactoring/...). Until they've been bitten by this, they won't understand. But you won't know beforehand, so ask the question in interviews !
Promote your best teammates eagerly and give them responsibilities.
Share as much information as possible with the team.
Enforce collective decision processes based on technical merit and cost (RFC-style), to rally everyone to the chosen solution.