Understanding the Basics of Trusted Leadership

By Rob Galford and Anne Seibold Drapeau

Every few years, the fashion industry proclaims a new color is "in" — that it's the new black. One year brown is the new black. The next it's gray. But as everyone knows, although there are many shades of gray, there's only one black.

In the business world these days, trust is the new black. How could it not be, after a year of corporate meltdowns like Enron and WorldCom, and the dubious behavior of high-profile leaders like Dennis Kozlowski and Martha Stewart?

But just because corporate trust is featured so prominently in the news now doesn't mean that it hasn't always been a basic, fundamental requirement for the success or an executive or a corporation. It's not going to go away. And understanding the basics of what it means to be a trustworthy executive is where it all starts.

Trusted leadership takes many forms.
From the way the CEO talks to the members of his or her senior management team, to the way front-line employees show how they feel about the company in the way they deal with customers. From the way people get promoted, or passed over for promotion, to the expectations they have when they sign on or leave. In order to get a handle on trust inside, you need to develop some form of 360-degree, multidimensional perspective on the way trust manifests itself in the leadership group. Or doesn't.

Trusted leadership shows itself as the sum total of many interpersonal interactions, all of them extraordinarily fragile.
Even in the best work environments, trust is potentially under attack all the time. Every time one manager says something about another without his or her knowledge; every time two staffers meet at the coffee machine; every email sent, every announcement made, every time a high-profile executive walks down a hall or engages in casual conversation. Trust needs vigilant protectors.

Every day, every organizational juncture provides opportunities for building trusted leadership.
Every instance in which trust might come under attack is also an instance in which trust might be created or strengthened. Every meeting with your employees give them a chance to see you and other leaders in action, hopefully not posturing or wearing false smiles.

The speed at which trust is destroyed is always faster than the speed at which it is built, but the process of building trust does accumulate deposits in your company's "trust bank."
A major violation of trust can quickly spread and poison an entire organization if it's not managed properly, however, no matter how strong that organization's "trust account' has been up to that point. A leadership group that works to build trust inside achieves a rhythm that helps it move smoothly through the kinds of business situations that cause other leadership groups to sputter and stall.

Your "account balance" provides a buffer of sorts. Where there is a history of trust, people are more inclined to give the company the benefit of the doubt in tough or questionable situations.

An individual's ability to build and maintain trust with clients correlates with his or her ability to build and maintain trust inside.
Relationships with clients are all about expectations, promises and delivery. So are relationships inside an organization. You can only set realistic expectations and make good on promises from the inside out if you're sure that the organization behind you can deliver. Your professionalism and certainty require trust.

Becoming a trusted leader requires both message and medium.
In other words, inspiring language, by itself, won't do the trick. Trust is intangible, but the acts of building, maintaining, and repairing trust require concrete processes. For example, you could easily proclaim, "From now on, the head of marketing will work to build trust with the head of finance!" Heads may nod, people may say "Aye, aye!" But the words by themselves are meaningless. If your head of marketing thinks about his need to build trust, however, and picks up the phone to call the head of finance to discuss a touchy resource allocation issue in advance, instead of resetting it as a fait accompli a week later, then that's progress.

Trusted leadership is a combination of what you accomplish (outcomes) plus who you are (skills and competencies).
Great outcomes and trustworthiness are often found together.

© 2002, 2003 Robert Galford and Anne Seibold Drapeau

Robert Galford and Anne Seibold Drapeau are the authors of The Trusted Leader - Bringing Out the Best in Your People and Your Company (The Free Press/Simon & Schuster). Rob, Managing Partner of the Center for Executive Development in Boston, has taught executive education programs at Columbia University, Kellogg, and most recently, Harvard University. He is the co-author of The Trusted Advisor (with David H. Maister and Charles H. Green). Anne is Chief People Officer of Boston-based Digitas, and has held management positions at Pepsi, J.P. Morgan, and FTD. They can be reached at info@thetrustedleader.com. Details on their book can be found at www.thetrustedleader.com.