People follow leaders they trust. So, building and maintaining trust is critical to good leadership. Thankfully, there are ways to earn and keep trust as a leader.
I’ve found trust develops over time and experience – as we witness trustworthy behavior. Honestly, as a leader, I’ve felt a delicate tension in maintaining trust. People look for a leader to be strong, independent and confident. Yet, we trust people who are approachable, inclusive and humble.
Jesus is the perfect model of this type of trusted leader. How do we combine those traits to be trusted leaders?
7 Ways to Earn and Keep Trust
1. Display confidence, but never cockiness.
People will trust a competent leader, but one who is arrogant will be dismissed quickly.
2. Follow through, which means you never over-commit.
When a leader does what they say they will, people gain trust. When the leader always bails on responsibility – when they have a new idea every day, but nothing ever comes to reality – people begin to doubt everything the leader says.
3. To Earn and Keep Trust – Put trust in others.
Trust is a mutually exclusive commodity. People won’t extend you trust they don’t feel they receive from you. This means you must not be controlling, micro-managing, or negative towards every new idea they bring to the table. It means you must empower, delegate, and give authority to people.
