How To Build Trust As A Leader

Pic credit: Joshua Earle via Unsplash

“Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships. When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective”. ~ Stephen Covey

This surely applies to Effective Leadership as well. Leadership is an inside-out job, and no one can deny the importance of trust in leadership.

The important question is — “How to build trust as a Leader?”

Here are 4 pillars of building trust, whether in personal or professional leadership. All these pillars when nurtured with deep, consistent inner work, leads to extraordinary results for leaders.

Intention. Beliefs. Attributes. Behaviour

Powerful Intentions of a Great Leader:

• You know that Leadership is an inside-out approach, so you focus on both the inner and outer game of life, both in personal and professional space.
• You are committed to consistent inner growth in all four dimensions, which naturally lead to higher professional growth — “Mental, emotional, physical and spiritual”, in all areas of your life.
• You aim to love and serve the people you are leading, not the other way around.
• You strive for excellence from yourself and others too.
• You are committed to making a difference not only in your own life, but in the lives of people you touch.
• You hold yourself for high level of commitment and integrity.

Empowering Beliefs of a Great Leader:

• You believe in your people. Period.
• You believe that, people innately have positive intentions, they intrinsically desire to do a good job. Nobody wants to do a lousy job, even if their behaviour appears to illustrate the opposite some time. They actually want to do their best, they might or might not be doing their best depending upon their skills, competence level, their physical, mental and emotional state of being.
• You believe that, given the right support (coaching, training or mentoring), people rise to the occasion and fulfil expectations, most of the times.
• You believe that, people like to take ownership and actually feel good about being held accountable.
• You know that, people have a need to belong and connect, to feel that they matter and are valued.
• You are clear that to truly empower people, leaders require to trust and let go.
• You realise that you are here in service of your people, to enable their true potential.

Despite usual efforts in so many work places, people do not receive enough acknowledgement and do not feel that they matter.

They do not feel enough connection and belonging to start trusting themselves and their potential, so they keep playing small due to lack of self-confidence and self-worth.

Personal Attributes of a Great Leader:

• You tell the truth. Period. (Assertively, with respect, empathy and compassion — No drama)
• You are curious to know more and don’t have a rigid attitude of ‘I know it all’ .
• You are open-minded, you do not judge a situation or presume, but are able to look from all the perspectives and come to a better understanding of your people’s behaviour.
• You have and show compassion for yourself and others.
• You have (or are building) high self-esteem and strive to maintain the self-esteem of others too, which means you’re not constantly looking for other’s validation and approval.
• You practice to listen before you speak, with an open heart and mind.
• You are not afraid to admit your mistakes and learn from them. You make space for your team to do mistakes, fail and support them through it all.
• You hold high integrity by being authentic, living your higher values and walking your talk.

Behaviour:

• You are willing to look in the mirror, when things go wrong and acknowledge others when things are going right.
• You know your responsibility and impact. You are mindful of how your words and actions may be perceived and interpreted in different ways.
• You strive to replace blame with ownership and responsibility.
• You create an environment of feed-forward, where feedback is expected and appreciated with openness.
• You develop systems and strategies that include, engage and inspire people to take ownership, work effectively and strive for excellence by fully participating in the process and growth (both for themselves and the organisation).
• You respect differences of opinion, and are happy to have people that have skills, talents and styles different from your own.

Only when great intentions are backed up by right beliefs and profound actions and behaviours, integrity is achieved, trust and respect is earned.

Read about Role of Love and feedback in cultivating Effective Leadership here.

Check -Are you walking the talk when it comes to leading your team?

If you are a leader striving to build trust with your team and facing challenges in that, connect with me at coach@salonisingh.com for a discovery call.

Check out www.salonisingh.com, we help leaders in both inner and outer game, to build beliefs and attributes that foster deeper trust in their relationships, to accelerate team alignment and achieve higher productivity and performance.

Much Love.

Saloni

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About Author:

Dr. Saloni Singh is a certified Life, Self-mastery & Leadership coach, mental & emotional well-being catalyst, a meditation and mindfulness facilitator & trainer, a certified Happiness coach and Master NLP practitioner.

She specialises into Coaching leaders for connecting with themselves deeply, handling stress, anxiety and tapping into the wellspring of inner well-being and self-mastery. She has been working with individuals, teams, families & groups globally for 15 years, to raise self-awareness.

She facilitates workshops for Conscious Leadership, Mental & emotional well-being, Mindfulness, Stress and conflict management and Coaching skills training for organisations.

To know more about her, or follow her blogs, go here: www.salonisingh.com or listen to her on Josh Talks