Why Trust Matters

Trust makes cooperation possible

Trust is the belief that another person can be relied upon to do what they say. It is an understanding that people will be treated fairly and with respect.? Trust is a key element in social relationships and the foundation for cooperation where personal friendships and interactions between groups require a sense of openness. ?

Trust is an unwritten social contract that can make the difference between a highly functional organization and one that is barely functional. When people trust one another, they can anticipate how others will respond. Life becomes more predictable when less energy is devoted to defensive routines.

On the other hand, when there is an elevated level of distrust, actions and behaviors become guarded. Organizational life becomes garrisoned where workgroups hunker down behind department walls and do their best to maximize individual conditions regardless of organizational consequences. Cooperation and optimization are ignored in a competitive race for survival.?

Trust allows people to subordinate a portion of their individuality for the benefit of the larger community. Trust builds over time because repeated experiences have been positive and fulfilling. But trust can be shattered in a single negative instant where well-being, expectations, and hope are sacrificed for another person’s ambiguous and selfish, not-agreed-to, purpose.?

Individuals in high places are often viewed with a certain level of skepticism—distrust—because their climb often requires compromise accompanied by shrewd and measured behavior. This type of ambition often makes coworkers and peer-level administrators uneasy, but lower-level individuals can become extremely anxious. Everyone recognizes their vulnerability when there is uncertainty because the social construct that allows trust to build has no written or fast rules. Predictability and conditions are at the convenience of—the prevailing top dog—the person in authority.?

How to be trustworthy

Anyone who desires the trust of associates and subordinates must be viewed as trustworthy. This is a status that is attainable through repeated actions that demonstrate consistent behavior: a willingness to withhold judgment and reciprocity, but also a willingness to expose personal vulnerabilities and exchange openness for working conditions that are mutually beneficial.

True leadership requires an adaptive mindset, which displays characteristics that are uncompromising in terms of trustworthiness. People are willing to follow a trustworthy leader because they agree with the declared purpose and feel they will not be betrayed—that their investment of time, energy, emotion, and sometimes money will get them to a better place without being disappointed. Leadership is much more than having a future perspective. It is also about building and keeping trust.?

When experience demonstrates that the relationship between leader and follower cannot be trusted, rebuilding confidence can take considerable time. Trust is built by bringing people together and visibly demonstrating two actions: respect (the conviction that people are capable individuals able to do what needs to be done with skill), and selflessness (the belief that people can act in the best interests of others as well as for themselves even in challenging circumstances). When people feel they have been treated unfairly, deceived, and disrespected, they will look for an opportunity to balance the perceived injustice.?

Acting in an untrustworthy manner will create grousing skeptics and disheartened antagonists that in time will sink the ambitions of those who deceived them. The leader’s cause will be battered by an undertow as followers try to attain their unfulfilled goals. As a rule, those who have been treated responsibly—have been trusted—can be rallied to a cause and will remain committed when the following happens:

• Opinions are respected and listened to. Inputs or ideas are considered, and not discarded without a fair hearing or evaluation.
• People are treated honestly. There are no hidden agendas or self-serving plans that place a particular individual or workgroup at a disadvantage.
• Individual uniqueness is acknowledged and recognized. proposed situation or ability to adapt to proposed changes is considered and accommodated.
• Promises—implied or explicit—are kept. Saying one thing and doing another at the organization’s convenience will only produce resistance.

To be trusted a person does not have to be 100 percent likable, but they must be consistent over time.? They gained trust because they walked the talk—did what they said they were going to do, enlisted the help of others, and demonstrated respect and selflessness for those who participated in achieving a particular end.

?A leader who has lost the trust of followers but maintains position by advantage based on rank is not a leader—just a figurehead who is presiding by default. In these situations, often driven by fear—the need to work and survive—people will follow but do only what is required and probably less. The result is an organization that is underperforming, displays dysfunctional behaviors and is managed through paternalistic relationships that are built on self-importance and dominance.

?The organization functions, work gets done, but people can’t wait until leadership, like supermarket produce, reaches the end of its shelf-life. Unfortunately, the exit often takes some devastating blow that diminishes the enterprise and alerts the board of directors that something is terribly wrong.?

The lesson in this case is: that trusted leaders have willing followers, are much more than overseers, and with the help of others, create organizations that are energetic workplaces where learning and growth happen. True leaders not only have influence and standing but also know how to build trust that anchors their leadership.??