Productivity begins when you extend trust to competent people (Dan Rockwell)

Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash

Leadership and trust are inextricably linked. 

In my experience it's a binary thing.

People either grow to trust you as a leader, or they don't.

No half measures.

If staff give you their trust, all can weather the storms.

Micro-managers don't use trust to get things done. But leaders do.

I firmly believe that when you employ competent people you should trust them, and get out of their way. 

It's make believe until it's only a matter of time, and some might have learned to adjust but then it never was a matter of trust (Billy Joel)

Photo by Arno Senoner on Unsplash

Recently, I was asked a 'what if' question. 

My policy is to answer direct questions as honestly as I can, so I did.

Specifically, the question was, what if you had a magic wand and could bring about one change. What would it be?

I wrote the first thing that came to mind - which was, 'more trust'.

Co-incidentally, after submitting my response I reread this article from George Couros.

It's about the one trait that distinguishes effective teams: trust.

George mentions a finding from Google's research into team effectiveness:

In a team with high psychological safety, teammates feel safe to take risks around their team members. They feel confident that no one on the team will embarrass or punish anyone else for admitting a mistake, asking a question, or offering a new idea.

In other words, great teams thrive on trust.

My spur of the moment thought was a good one.

It's a matter of trust (Billy Joel)

As I've mentioned before, I operate under a high trust model in my classroom.

My students know that because I tell them. I set out some simple parameters at the end of my slide show presentation about what students can expect of the year.

Slide 1:

Slide 2:

One's personal integrity comes in part from one's trustworthiness - so, in my students' case, how much they keep to these simple guidelines. 

So far I've been really impressed with my students this year. 

They are well aware that when trust is broken, it is very very hard to get back.