Trustworthy Leadership

Trustworthy Leadership

Trust forms a foundation for functioning relationships and co-operation. Trust is intangible – it is an intellectual asset, a skill, and an influencing power for leaders. Leadership by trust emphasizes trustful behaviour towards employees. It is the trustworthiness in a leader’s behaviour that matters thus a leader must show trustworthiness by competence, integrity, benevolence and credibility on daily basis in leadership work. Trust is essential at all levels, more so in an organization at managerial level, and is manifested in the way, frequency, and quality of interaction between managers and employee’s.

Employees that trust their leaders work effectively and have a high level of commitment. In addition they share ideas and knowledge, tacit knowledge in particular. Trust in the behaviour of other people grows when cooperation is reciprocated. A good leader will stimulate the development of trust through respect and appreciation, while a leader who lacks understanding will underestimate the employee’s personal competences. This eventually will result in a decline at work performance and thus the company’s performance. Trust decline most often when positive expectations are dis-confirmed. Most organizations focus on offering career opportunities for personnel and believe they fulfill the employee’s motivational needs in order to build commitment. They overlook an essential fact; the employee’s commitment to work and the organization is related to the employee’s mental well-being and this is what affects the success of an organization.

Those employed in an organization create trustworthiness by their daily behaviour and actions. Feelings of insecurity appearing at workplaces may often be the reason for atmosphere -related problems such as teasing, conflicts and disputes. Insecurities originate from two human disruptive emotions; Envy and Jealousy. They are differentiated as follows: Envy is when you want what someone else has, while Jealousy is when you’re worried someone’s trying to take what you have.

Emotions are a powerful instigator of behaviour, and envy, the unmentionable emotion, is perhaps one of the most pervasive and powerful of all the disruptive emotions that effect every corporate environment. Though not spoken about it is there, woven within the fabric of every organization and it affects employee moods, organizational morale and culture and ultimately, it is one of the causes of employee disengagement and productivity loss.

There are many reasons for envy to manifest itself daily at the workplace: Competing for scare resources of limited budgets, vying for important assignments, are commonplace situations that can trigger predictable envy. Coveting attributes and qualities a colleague has that another might lack is another understandable possibility in the frailty of human nature. Losing a promotion to someone better qualified can also be a trigger for envy.

Jealousy at workplace on the other hand originates from suspicion and distrust and may be understood as such:

Possessive Jealousy:
Leader’s pays more attention to the needs of a particular person/community.

Exclusion Jealousy:
Leader’s exclude a particular person/community from active work involvement or rewards.

Competition Jealousy:
Leader’s show favouritism and reward a particular person /persons from a particular community. 
                           
Egotism Jealous:
Leader’s dis-confirm all works by a person/community that would benefit the work community/others in the organization.
                                 
Fear Jealousy:
Leader’s fear the ability and skills of a person/community that would undermine their own capabilities or that of the community favoured.
                             

To sum it up the unwitting/bias behaviour of a leader could be the trigger for envy or jealousy and may very well be an insidious cause of much discontent and disruption in the workplace.

In addition to a leader’s behaviour, organizational culture plays a key role in the development of trust and distrust in an organization. Culture is largely influenced by actions of those who lead. For example; in the case of a very authoritarian management style, employees become socialized by the actions of their leader’s and adopt the style.

Leadership by trust matters in innovative and co-creative work environments. It is the small and mundane deeds of the leader that matter for employee’s in forming opinion of trustworthiness. Leaders should increase their awareness and knowledge about building trust, and they should develop behavioural skills for demonstrating trustworthiness. Trust influences organizational processes such as communication, cooperation, and information sharing, and it affects productivity.

Mental well-being is largely sustained by emotional support such as appreciation, respect, openness and feedback. A commitment to work in the organization is reflected in the employee’s work motivation and satisfaction which is directly related to trustworthiness in leadership.

Darryl.I. Pereira