BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Enhance Your Trustworthiness For Transformational Leadership

Forbes Human Resources Council

VP & People Lead, Asia, S&P Global, driving innovation and growth through people-first approach.

"In God we trust; all others pay cash." This was a common saying that arose in mid-19th century America. Fast forward to today and trust in digital currency has almost obviated the transaction of worthless paper money. Trust is, and has stayed, the ultimate currency that makes the world go around. No child would ever take their first step if she didn't trust her parents to break her fall. No country or corporation would flourish if its citizens and employees couldn't trust its leaders. Some of our recent failings, including the varied responses to the U.S. election and other corporate fiascoes around the world, arose from a lack of trust in leadership, among other factors. This article explores the factors that enhance trustworthiness to make a leader transformational.

The Trust Quotient

It would be a trick question if I asked you, "Would you like to be a trustworthy leader or a strong one?" One cannot be a leader, let alone be a strong leader unless one is trustworthy. One way the trustworthiness of a leader can be measured is by their trust quotient (TQ). Charles Green, in his book The Trusted Advisor, described the TQ as an interplay of four variables — credibility, reliability, intimacy and self-orientation. One's TQ increases with an increase of the first three variables. However, one's TQ decreases with the increase of self-orientation or focusing too much on yourself. These four parameters provide great insight for leaders to enhance their trustworthiness as transformational leaders should help guide people to the next level, beyond what they were initially capable of. However, this magic can only happen when, as a leader, your self-orientation is low and you are totally dedicated to the team's needs.

Building Versus Earning Trust

You cannot build trust on your own. You can take actions to build trust, but then it must be given to you by your subject. Changing the concept from building trust to earning trust alters our perception of the process and makes it a sustainable and continuous effort. As a leader, you must continuously strive to practice what you preach. You must lead from the front to support the team while balancing the financial results. Actions speak louder than words when it comes to earning trust. Being open, honest, approachable, ethical and consistent in your approach are some of the ways to earn trust.

An EY study of over 9,800 employees in eight countries studied the "very important" factors in determining the level of trust in their employers. The factors ranked as follows: "delivers on promises" (67%); "provides job security" (64%); "provides fair compensation and good benefits" (63%); "communicates openly/transparently" (59%). This has clear insights for leaders. Employees trust the leaders who follow up on their commitments, provide psychological safety, are fair and communicate to provide the context of their actions.

Trust, Transparency And Performance

Some leaders might believe that being more transparent helps in enhancing trust, but I would argue if you are focused solely on increasing transparency, then you are reducing the need for trust. Think of it this way: You only require detailed information from the team member whom you don't trust. The corollary of this assumption is more valid where a high-trust culture could give rise to higher transparency. Transparency is not a substitute for good governance and decision-making. As leaders, you earn trust by being consistent in all the moments, even if nobody is watching.

A high-performing but untrusted leader creates a toxic culture. It gives rise to short-termism by emphasizing achieving targets without considering how they are achieved. This destroys the long-term value and stifles collaboration. Organizations are waking up to the fact that it's necessary to measure trust along with the performance parameters. A high-performing leader with a high TQ is the best bet to transform, encourage and enhance both individual and business growth.

Connect And Lead

Dr. Susan Fiske's famous work on competency and warmth gives great insights for leaders to further build trust. Competency (i.e., intelligence, power, efficacy and skills) is the ability to do the right things and warmth (i.e., approachability, friendliness, empathy and kindness) is the ability to connect with employees. If leaders don't use both parameters in tandem, employees could feel varying degrees of emotions ranging from disdain, envy or pity. A high degree of competence and warmth together produce trust and admiration. In organizations, in the formal set up, it could be easy for you to focus on measurable competence and not emphasize enough on fuzzy warmth parameter. But if you want to increase your trustworthiness, it's important to connect first and then lead. Like in closing a sale, enhancing trust is the sum of heart and head engagement.

Vulnerable leadership is a great way to connect and gain trust. In current times, this has been used by the head of states, corporate leaders and social influencers to a great impact. If you are vulnerable, you share your authentic self, admit when you don't know all the answers and don't let your ego get in the way. Vulnerability, along with competence, is a great way to enhance your trustworthiness.

Trusted leaders can create a culture of strong employee engagement, higher retention and enhanced psychological safety to spur innovation. In today's turbulent, uncertain, novel and ambiguous (TUNA) world, such leaders can create resilience in teams and help gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. If you want to improve efficiency, engagement and productivity in your teams, having a high trust quotient is essential. As a leader, you have the power to make this happen.


Forbes Human Resources Council is an invitation-only organization for HR executives across all industries. Do I qualify?


Follow me on LinkedInCheck out my website