May

5

David Maister on Trust

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Anecdote posted on David Maister’s podcast on earning trust and it’s importance to business. The fact is that leaders cannot lead without trust. Maister identifies four dimensions to trust which I found to be useful. The first three characteristics cause trust to increase:

  • Credibility - about words - I can trust what he says. This is about tangible, professional expertise.
  • Reliability - about actions - I can trust her to do something. Are you dependable and behave in certain ways?
  • Intimacy - about emotions - I feel comfortable discussing this with that person. This is about the ability to relate to people one to one. It is the dimension that people fail on most often - it has high consequences if we get it wrong. 

The fourth component, self orientation, reduces trust:

  • Self-Orientation - about motives - the extent to which we can trust that someone cares about certain things. This relates to the extent to which we can focus on the other person in the relationship rather than ourselves. Selfishness, self-consciousness, need to appear on top of things or to appear intelligent, a long to-do list that distracts us from focusing in the moment etc are all things that keep us focused on ourselves rather than the other person.

These four dimensions are a useful way to assess our own behaviour as leaders. Do our words, actions and the emotions we evoke in people align? Are our motives pure? Can your leadership be described by the above characteristics? Are you inspiring trust?

 

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