By Susan Peirce
Integrity is always a pre-requisite for trust. Webster defines trust as “the belief or confidence in the honesty, integrity, reliability, and justice of another person.” Trust exists among professionals in the workplace and is conditioned by respect for competence and reliability.
Trust is much more attainable when an organization’s sense of purpose is understood and shared. If the sense of purpose lacks clarity or if unreconcilable differences exist about the goal, a trusting environment is nearly impossible to achieve. The sharing of effort to achieve an agreed-upon outcome engenders trust.
Individuals usually exceed targets when they understand and willingly accept the aim, vision, and values of the organization and believe they are treated fairly. Moreover, rewards will soar by the pride in their accomplishments and joy in their work.
Common leadership causes of mistrust include:
- Biased, useless, or incorrect information
- Incompetence or the presumption of incompetence
- The misalignment of measurements and rewards, placing people against one another and against the organization
- An imperfect understanding of the systems
- A lack of integrity – whether it’s caused by an individual violator or internal conditions that need to be changed
The quest for competence and reliability as a concept is not enough. Without integrity, they are dangerous. Without aim, vision, values, goals, and objectives, they are meaningless.
Excerpts taken from The Trust Factor by John O. Whitney.
