Leadership Nudge – What is Trust?
Today we are going to talk about trust. Trust means trust! Trust does not mean trust and competence merged together.
Let me give you an example. Let’s say you are driving me to the airport. We get to a stop sign and you turn left. I think we should turn right. Do I trust you? Well, it depends. If I think you are trying to get me to the airport, then YES I trust you. I trust that you are trying to get me to the airport. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you CAN get me to the airport. That’s an issue of reading the local traffic and the maps. That’s an issue of competence.
Now the reason it is important to break out trust from competence is we want to have the ability in our organization to have knock down drag out unemotional conversations about, should we be turning left or right. We want to do this without bringing in the baggage of “oh, don’t you trust me?”
That is why we break those two things apart. Trust means you and I have the same end state and I think you are trying to get me to the airport. We call this ability.
My leadership nudge to you this week is this:
When you want to show someone that you have confidence in their ability to make a decision, don’t say “I trust you to make this decision.” Say, “I’m confident you have the ability to make the decision.” This means I both trust that you’re trying to do the right thing and you have the skills, knowledge and technical competence to make the decision.
Let us know how it goes!
Enroll for the Leadership Nudge – www.davidmarquet.com
