1. Leadership is about people and relationships. Relationships are built on trust and other variables. Since trust is a key ingredient in the development of professional relationships, then leaders should give it unduly attention. There are different ways to develop trust like being open, transparent, honest, and relatable. Essentially, leaders should use tactics that they're comfortable with and based on their context as well.
2. If leaders take the time to build trusting relationships with their colleagues, then there will be positive repercussions. A major one being the creation of a safe working environment where employees feel vulnerable and comfortable sharing their perspectives or confiding in others. There are other benefits of high-trust environments. “In fact, according to a study in Harvard Business Review, people at high-trust companies report 74% less stress, 106% more energy at work, 50% higher productivity, 13% fewer sick days, 76% more engagement, 29% more satisfaction with their lives, and 40% less burnout than people at low-trust companies [3]” (Lewis, 2022). Conversely, a lack of trust can potentially create a toxic working environment, one where there is a lack of confidentiality, fear, information hoarding, and a lot of office politics/drama.
3. If a leader cannot be trusted in the organization, then people may engage in withdrawal behaviors where they begin to distance themselves from that person and try to avoid them. The leader’s reputation can also be tarnished as people may start leaking information to the press or spread rumors about that person. Leadership is not only negatively affected but the organization can also experience negative impacts like increased turnover rates and decreased productivity among others.
Krista
MDE student
University of Maryland Global Campus
University of Maryland Global Campus | UMGC
References
Lewis, A. (2022). Good leadership? It all starts with trust. Harvard Business Publishing. How Leaders Build Trust | Harvard Business Publishing