Blog about Leadership

Building Trust 

Building trust is a make-or-break point for some leaders, but there are merely two steps to successfully build trust.

The first step is the obvious.

1) Have a trustworthy character.

This is so obvious that you are probably wondering why I am writing this. Well, frankly, it is important to continually reiterate that honesty and responsibility still matter – especially in business. There seems to be a misnomer in most college business curriculums with a course like “business ethics.” This is not an oxymoron, but an inappropriate use of an adjective. There are not a set of ethics for business that are different than the ethics for church, family, friends, politics, or any-and-every other facet of life. There are just ethics. Either you are ethical or you are making poor, short-sided, non-leader decisions.

Of course, nobody is perfect. We make mistakes and sometimes it requires another to notice and call us on our mistakes. When this happens, the leader’s response is to admit the wrong, correct it, and move on.

The second step gets a little more into the message of this post.

2) Build value.

Peter Drucker quote:
“It’s much easier to sell the Brooklyn Bridge than to give it away. Nobody trusts you if you offer something for free.”

Build value through:

• Actively participating – listening and communicating are elementary skills for leaders. Leaders need to listen to those around them and communicate ideas, objections, suggestions, and decisions.

• Demonstrating knowledge – you have to demonstrate your knowledge as it applies in an organization. If you don’t have the knowledge necessary to lead, then you will never garner the trust to lead.

• Portraying confidence – if there is one attribute that is contagious, it is confidence. Every effect leader portrays confidence in themselves as leaders, in the organization, and in the environment that is where the organization is operating and to where leadership is driving.

See the correlation of ethics and leadership for more.

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