Winter 2021
Article
Leader to Leader

Trust: The Foundation of Leadership

By: Frances Frei and Anne Morriss

Format:Print

Abstract

The authors contend that if leadership is about empowering others, in your presence and your absence, then trust is the emotional framework that allows that service to be freely exchanged. Based on their experiences advising individuals and organizations, their basic formula for building trust is: people tend to trust you when they think they are interacting with the real you (authenticity), when they have faith in your judgment and competence (logic), and when they believe that you care about them (empathy). When trust is lost, it can almost always be traced back to a breakdown in one of these core trust drivers. We don't always realize what information (or more often, misinformation) we're putting out about our own trustworthiness. And stress tends to amplify the problem. Your wobble is the driver that's most likely to get shaky in periods of low trust. Everyone has a wobble, though a small change in behavior can go a long way. Tools are provided within each area of authenticity, logic, and empathy. For instance, within the latter, if you do nothing else, put down your phone. You'll be amazed at the immediate uptick in trust—and you may even get to end meetings sooner.