"If only out of curiosity..."

We hear a lot about the precipitous decline of trust in our society today.  According to a Pew Center survey this past spring, only 22% of U.S. adults said they trust the U.S. government to do the right thing just about always or most of the time.   The decline in trust isn't just limited to government.  Over the last few years, trust in a number of institutions and organizations, including the military, the health care system, the media, and even organized religion, has continued to decline (see data from the most recent Gallup poll):

This erosion of trust is widespread and impacts almost every part of society today.  Just as important, Americans are losing trust in the leaders of these institutions and organizations too.  For example, one study showed that only 1 in 4 employees trust the leaders of their organizations.  We know, based on decades of research, that trust is a critical driver of employee engagement.  Trusting employees are more motivated and are less likely to look for another job elsewhere.  Trust and good leadership seem to go hand in hand.  

Someone once asked the late General Colin Powell, "How would you define the key characteristics of effective leadership that allow you to go and be an advocate for good?"  General Powell didn't hesitate for one second and responded simply, "Trust" (see the video clip here).

General Powell explained further, "The longer I have been in public service and the more people have asked me about leadership over the years...leadership ultimately comes down to creating conditions of trust within an organization.  Good leaders are people who are trusted by followers.  Leaders take organizations past the level that the science of management says is possible."

General Powell then talked about an important lesson he learned about leadership during his time at the U.S. Army Infantry School at Fort Moore (formerly known as Fort Benning), Georgia.  He recalled, "One of my sergeants back in the Infantry school at Fort Benning almost 50 years ago, which is where I learned everything I ever got to learn about leadership was at the Infantry school, and he said to me one day, he said, Lieutenant, you’ll know you’re a good leader when people follow you if only out of curiosity! I’ve never had a better definition, because what he was saying, and I’ve seen it and experienced it in my life so many times, what he was saying is they trust you, and you have built up that trust."

If trust is such an important driver of engagement and critical to a leader's success, how then, do we foster trust, particularly during a time when trust of leaders and organizations is declining everywhere?  Abbey Lewis, writing for the Harvard Business School, suggests that there are three keys for leaders to build trust:

1. Transparency: Share information openly and candidly, provide regular feedback, and encourage open communication.  Lewis defines "open communication" as creating an environment where employees feel free to speak up about their concerns and express their opinions (sounds a lot like creating a culture of psychological safety!)

2. Authenticity: Lewis writes, "Leaders become more authentic when they begin with knowing who they are—what they value, what they’re good at, how emotionally intelligent they are—and how others perceive them."  Leaders also need to show that they are vulnerable by admitting that they aren't perfect, that they do not know all of the answers, and that they too can make mistakes.  

3. Reliability: Leaders have to follow through on their commitments.  Leaders need to show integrity by being fair and honest.  And they need to show that, even though they can make mistakes (see above), they still know what they are doing.

In one of my previous posts ("The trust equation"), I mentioned an article in the Harvard Business Review by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman ("The three elements of trust").  Zenger and Folkman surveyed over 87,000 leaders and similarly found that the three most important drivers of trust were (1) positive relationships, (2) good judgement/expertise, and (3) consistency.  However, by far the most important driver was the ability to form positive relationships.  When leaders scored low on "Positive relationships", trust significantly decreased, even if they scored high on both "Good judgement/expertise" and "Consistency".  Forging positive relationships is about being transparent and authentic as a leader.  When positive relationships have been formed between leaders and their teams, the individuals on the team will follow the leader, "even if only out of curiosity."