Leadership and Trust

I think the essential duty of a leader or a manager, is to be worthy of their subordinates’ trust. Why is this the case?

The essential realisation is that subordinates do not really have any good option with regard to not trusting their superiors or their teams.

• If leaders are not trustworthy, operating defensively is possible, but collective outcomes are guaranteed to be poor regardless of individual effort; only limitedly positive individual outcomes become possible.
• On the other hand, if leaders are not trustworthy and team members try to operate in good faith, they are likely to end up with outcomes that leave them worse off than team members who choose to operate defensively.

While it is important for leaders to be trusted by their superiors, I think this is actually ultimately part of being worthy of their subordinates’ trust as well.