Trust and Intimacy

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.  

Intimacy is the variable that most equates to trustworthiness. Displaying intimacy is as simple as expressing sincere interest in other people. Those that rely on credibility and reliability without intimacy come across as robotic. They may be trusted to do a job, but they will never be trusted with information. Intimacy is ultimately about caring.

If you have been working with someone for a few weeks and you do not know if they are in a relationship, have kids, where they grew up, or what they do for fun, then you are not displaying intimacy in your role. You can’t fake it. You’ve got to really care about people to be a trustworthy leader.  

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.