The Leading Question Article Series

“Trust Me?”

Take a few moments to ponder the following question: think of the people you know or have known, and list the names of those who you can say you truly trust. Like a “9” or “10” on a scale of 1-10.

Got it? How long is your list? If you are like many, your list of names will be fairly short, perhaps as few as two or three people. Now, ask yourself a second question: If people who know you were similarly asked to list those they would say they truly trust – a “9” or a “10” – would they include your name on their list?

Sobering thought isn’t it? Trust, or the lack thereof, is a critical component of leadership relationships. Unfortunately, in most of our clients, trust in leaders and amongst the leadership team is disappointingly low. And, therefore, the leaders experience considerable “drag” as they seek to move their organization in new directions.

Sound familiar? If so, perhaps you could benefit from intentionally working to improve the trust others have in you.

Trust can be defined as the “firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability or strength of someone or something.” Therefore, to increase one’s trust in another is to increase their belief in the other’s trustworthiness.

David Shore, in his book The Trust Crisis in Healthcare describes three key components to demonstrating trustworthiness:

• Empathy – the ability to understand and share the feelings of another
• Integrity – the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness
• Performance – the action of carrying out or accomplishing a task

So, if your desire is to increase your trust “score” in the eyes of others, you can do so by:

1. Showing genuine empathy - by honoring and appreciating their concerns, fears and hopes.
2. Being good for your word, clear about the principles that underpin your leadership actions, and always acting consistently with those principles.
3. Promising what you will do. Then doing what you promised. And when circumstances change and prevent you from doing so, acknowledge the broken promise, apologize sincerely, make amends (restitution) as necessary, and make (and keep!) a new promise.

As the axiom goes, trust is difficult to earn, and can be lost in an instant. However, as leaders we have an enormous responsibility and accountability to act in a trustworthy way – at all times (even when no one is watching.) The resulting impact on organizational performance and morale is substantial – when your employees and stakeholders truly believe “We have a leader we can trust!”

Mark Shunk
Senior Partner
O'Brien Group