Trust – The Cornerstone of strong leadership
If you want to boost your personal leadership skills, you have to face your relationship with trust. A challenge. And it appears it is a feasible one.
‘The past is in the past, the present is a gift and trust the future’, is a beautiful saying. And yet, Marleen Boen of the Training and Coaching Square realizes that trust is not an easy subject today. A lot dynamics operate from dis-trust. This leads to economic instabilities and situations like Brexit. Trust is nevertheless and essential pillar in the behavior of successful people. Marleen: “Trust does not equal credulity. You don’t have to trust blindly, you have to trust smart. Stephen Covey has a nice formula for Trust that we often use in our Coaching journeys and Trainings: Trust = Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy / Self-Orientation (=Ego). If the Ego grows – Trust lowers. If Reliability grows, Trust also grows. You need Trust in yourself and others. We humans are not made to live alone, we need relationships as mirrors for our continued evolution. I am convinced that every human carries this power within, without naively believing everybody is 100% honest. Trust makes it possible, to chase the values you belief in and it allows you to leave others in their value.
Trust can be built
Marleen Boen is conviced Trust can built, by reflecting on your own credibility and reliability. Are you delivering the expected results? Are you clear in your intentions? The biggest part of conflicts finds their origin in expectations that have not been clearly voices or that are assumed. You can use these same parameters to decide if you can trust others.
Marleen: “Trusting in a smart way is for example daring to ask advice while keeping your ego in check. The opposite, distrust, is not asking the needed advice. This leads to fear, lack of cooperation and silo’s in companies. Lack of Trust is a key driver for intensive stress in people.”
A big problem we are facing is the battle for power. Marleen: “power is needed, a difference in power is ok. Power becomes a problem when people feel the need to secure their place by abusing their power over others. In organizations or groups, there is room for ‘people of power’ that use their power in a different way, on the condition that you can trust yourself to collaborate with others. By trusting in the power that you can jointly create in an organization and by operating from a position of equality. This will lead to win-win situations. Our fear for disappointment and conflict is what is standing in our way of collaboration in trust. Conquering those fears requires courage and perseverance.
Organizations that want to be successful, require people that can create and grow things from a position of trust. That will have a huge impact on the credibility, inside and outside of the organization.”
In four articles, Marleen will zoom in on the dimensions that will make organizations successful in the 21st Century: Agility, self-leadership, Possibility Thinking and Trust. As a conclusion to this series, she will share her vision on humans and organisations in the upcoming 3 to 5 years.