Send to KindleLeadership, Trust, and Reality
“You can’t be a leader until you establish trust.”
That statement caught my attention recently. It’s one of those statements that sounds nice but isn’t really accurate. In fact, you won’t establish trust unless you’re a good leader.
Trust is earned. I can walk into a room and say, “Trust me, I know what I’m doing.” If you know me you may say to yourself, “Yes, I trust him.” Hopefully you’d say that. But if you don’t know me you’re probably not willing to give me your trust just because I ask you to. You’d be more likely to say, “Prove to me that you’re worthy of my trust.”
How can you earn trust as a leader?
Always be honest with your workers. If you don’t start out with complete honesty, you’ll never recover.
Know yourself and be yourself. Who you really are will become evident to your people pretty quickly. If they think you’re trying to be something you’re not, you’ll never gain their trust.
Be consistent. Don’t tell the workers one thing and the boss or peers another. That sort of thing will get back to the workers. Think how you would like that.
Be fair. That doesn’t mean treating everyone the same, but giving a fair hearing to each situation. People want to be treated fairly, not identically.
Most importantly, listen. People find it hard to trust someone who doesn’t listen. Don’t you?
You’ll be a more successful leader when you’ve established trust, but you won’t establish that trust unless you start out as a good leader.
