Goal Driven Consulting
How to be the leader others can trust
People cannot trust the leadership of a leader if they don't trust him. People need to trust you as a leader before they trust your leadership. Trust is the foundation on which effective leadership stands. If there is no trust in a leader, then there is no trust in his or her leadership.
I have learned over the years that there are no shortcuts when coming to leadership. Strong leadership comes as a result of your people trusting you because you have worked for it. Trust does not come cheap, it must be earned.
How do you earn trust from the people you lead?
- Develop a strong character
People cannot trust a leader whose character has cracks and slips. Character is the basis on which leadership success is guaranteed. There is no leader who can win people's trust when his or her character is so weak.
Great leaders are people of great character. Think of leaders like Martin Luther King jnr, Ronald Reagan, Mahdima Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela etc. These leaders were great leaders because they earned trust from their people through strong character.
- Embrace competence
If you want your people to trust you as a leader, you must be competent in your job. That is, you must excel in your job. People follow, respect and admire a competent leader.
It is not enough to have strong character without competence, they complement one another. General H. Norman Shcwarzkpf said, "To lead in the twenty-first century, you will be required to have both character and competence."
- Honour your words
No one can trust a leader who keeps making promises without keeping them. When you speak words of promises to your people and fail to honour them, you destroy their trust in you faster than you can imagine. In the same way, when you make promises to your people and honour them by fulfilling them, you build trust faster than you can think.
It is not easy to keep promises. It requires a lot of commitment on the side of the leader to keep them. If you really want to build trust with your people, you don't have to make promises that you know you are not prepared to keep.
- Be a person of honesty and integrity
Honesty is the absence of lies. It is the ability to be true to yourself and to others no matter the cost. People follow and trust a leader who does not lie to solve the problem. They follow a leader who tells the truth in all circumstances and situations. Honesty means that a leader takes responsibility for his failures and mistakes. He does not blame other people for his own mistakes.
Integrity means that a leader keeps the balance between what he says and what he does. Leaders with integrity have nothing to hide. A leader of integrity says to his people, "come to work on time," and he comes to work on time. He does not say something and does the opposite of what he says. Integrity makes trust possible.
- Be kind to your people
Being kind to your people does not mean that you must not take hard decisions when they do not perform. It means that when you do small things consistently, you will build trust with your people.
For example, if you consistently say to them, "Please", "Thank you", "All is forgiven", "How may I help you"," What do you think?", "You did a good job", you are gradually building trust between you and your people. It will ultimately pay off.
- Avoid badmouthing other people
If you want people to trust you, you have to avoid talking bad about those who are absent due to some commitments. If you speak bad of someone who is not there in the presence of other people, the people present will think that when they are not around you speak bad of them the same way. If you do so, they will not trust you and your leadership.
If you have a problem with one of them who is not around, wait for that person to come and confront him or her with courtesy. Thus you will build trust.
- Forgive
People trust leaders who are willing to forgive them for the wrongs they might have caused them. The former president of South Africa, Dr Nelson Mandela, is highly trusted all over the world because of his willingness to forgive those who terribly wronged him and his people through apartheid laws. True forgiveness entails the decision to let go and move on.
If you are going to be a leader other people can trust, you need to forgive.
- Apologise when you are wrong
Being a leader does not mean that you are immune from making mistakes. You are a human being and sometimes you will make mistakes that will hurt your people. All that you need to do is to learn to say, "I am sorry." Desmond Tutu said, "The most difficult words to say in any language is, "I am sorry."
Learn to say, "I should not have spoken to you the way I did", or "I am sorry I have ignored you." You will build great relationships with your people this way and they will trust you and your leadership.
- Confront constructively
It is very important that you must hold your people accountable as a leader. Holding people accountable means that if they are not performing the way they are supposed to perform, they must be confronted constructively. The reason for confrontation is to try to find out why are they performing so poorly.
You must also confront people constructively when they have weak or blind spots that affect them in their work execution. Focus on the problem and not the person.
Conclusion
Trust is not an easy thing to get from people. You must make sacrifices to earn it. When you build trust, your people will trust you and they will give you permission to influence them through your leadership.
I wish you all the best in your endeavour to build trust with your people!