Quote of the week
“…there simply is no trust without risk.”
Editor’s Corner
Increasingly, trust is being seen as a significant element of good leadership. So on the one hand, your response is probably, “what else is new?” But in fact, what exactly does the word mean in this context?
Take as a starting point that leadership is not a core trait that you are born with, but something that you can learn and improve upon. It is both behavioral and situational, in that you can learn appropriate leadership actions that will help you respond to specific situations, types of organizations, and the like.
As well, the leader is increasingly seen as the “chef d’orchestre” who is constantly involved with multiple players who are needed in order to make things happen in the increasingly complex world. This suggests a focus on relationships … which brings us to trust.
A good example of the trust issue in government relates to the use of social media: why is it that our risk-averse, hierarchical decision-making organizations don’t trust individuals to Tweet on their behalf? Well, the answer is in the previous sentence…
An interesting article from Forbes that was given to me notes that trust is a two-way relationship between a “trustor” and a “trustee.” The former takes risks, the latter’s responsibility is to be trustworthy.
If you’re a leader, you have to do both: you have to learn to trust, and also how to be trusted.
