Trust & Reliability

Trust is an essential ingredient of leadership. Without it, your leadership ambitions cannot be realized. The equation for building trust is simple: credibility + reliability + intimacy divided by self-orientation. Understanding the power of each of these variables is as easy as thinking about the type of people that have yet to master one of the factors.  

You would never place your faith in an unreliable person. We all have great friends that are extremely flakey. We may love them, but we are not going to trust them to come through for us. This is a real shame because reliability is easy. It does not require years of schooling or a personality transplant. Just do what you say you are going to do; follow through.

A leader must be reliable. All the credibility and personality in the world will not allow you to overcome a reputation for being unreliable. Be careful about your commitments and ensure that you can be counted on to deliver. Under promise & over deliver should always be your mantra. Just do it.

The trust equation is a powerful leadership tool. Study it and work on your weakest variable to build a solid foundation for trust-based relationships.