Trust is the foundation of leadership. Without trust, it’s nearly impossible to recruit and retain followers and to implement change. Trust affects a leader’s impact and the company’s bottom line more than any other factor.
But there’s no shortcut to building trust. It has to be earned, and that process takes time. The best leaders devote consistent effort to building and maintaining trust. Here are the principles they go by:
When people experience your character, they will trust you.
When people can count on you, they will trust you.
When people see you genuinely care, they will trust you.
When people view you as competent, they will trust you.
When people encounter your courage, they will trust you.
When people know what you’re thinking, they will trust you.
When people see you act with consistency, they will trust you.
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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