Trust is everything
Bite sized leadership advice
Trust is everything. It takes time to build yet can be lost in an instance.
You can only achieve or lead change if those around you trust you.
Trust is at the heart of risk taking and safety, it is a human to human ‘contract’.
Not in a ‘I trust you’ kinda way. If you have to say it, then ask yourself why you have to say it.
Demonstrate it in everything you do as a leader. Do you protect your team, do you question their judgement, do you empower them?
The military builds teams based on mutual trust. There is a reason for that. If you are in the fox hole, you want to know that you can trust your team.
Organisations based on trusted relationships are more agile, more dynamic and can do things quickly in the knowledge that the team is working together.
Once you have lost trust it is difficult to regain, as an individual, a leader or an organisation.
Treat trust as your special sauce. Protect it, nurture it and grow it.
How do you build trust and quickly?
- Be consistent in what you say or do.
- Under commit and overdeliver.
- Act with discretion and humility.
Enablers to trust include openness, honesty and authenticity, shared goals, motives and positive intent. Empathy is a core skill.
The biggest factor. To get trust you need to give trust. Do you?
This is part of our Leadership Wizdom series, bite sized leadership advice for leaders who wish to improve their leadership, but don’t have much time. For more indepth articles check out The Change Wizard
