Trust and leadership

Trust is the commodity of leadership. Healthy relationships are impossible when there is lack of trust. When trust is low, resistance is high. People question leadership, push back heavily, and fill communication vacuums with negative assumptions. They are skeptical and suspicious of the motivations of others. Unnecessary friction slows endeavors significantly, if not stalling them altogether.

Conversely, when trust is high, collaboration thrives because people believe the best in one another and reach consensus more quickly. Productive organizations seek to build high-trust relationships across every level throughout the enterprise.

The most critical relationships are those between team leaders and their direct reports. The relationship between manager and team member is likely the most important bond determining retention of talent for any organization. The quality of this relationship is paramount. Those who have been successful individual contributors are often moved into positions in which they are responsible for giving oversight to a team, without being equipped to address the relational dynamics. Because they have been productive as individuals, it is assumed that they possess the necessary competencies and emotional intelligence to lead others. This is a faulty and sometimes costly assumption. 

It is absolutely imperative that organizations invest in the next generation of leaders, developing bench strength to adequately prepare for the sustainability and growth of the enterprise. The secret is to invest heavily in these high-potential players in such a way that they could go anywhere and be successful, while showing them so much love they would never want to leave. 

Another factor that has seriously eroded trust in many organizations is the frequency of seeing senior leaders take care of themselves financially with blatant disregard of the cost to others. Many proverbial "golden parachutes" have been constructed for top-tier leaders by ripping apart the fabric of an organization and stitching it together with the threadbare heartstrings of those who have invested heavily at great personal cost. When self-preservation becomes evident among leaders, the desire of others to follow them is greatly diminished. 

These destructive factors must be addressed, so we can build a work environment that inspires people to bring their best every day.