a short note about trust in a supervisor / leader

Trust is the key to all relationships, it is the glue of organizations. It is the cement that holds the bricks together. Trust comes from three sources: the personal, the institutional, and one person consciously choosing to give it to another – an act that leads me to feel your belief that I can add value. You give me trust and I return it. Trust is a verb and a noun. When it’s both a verb and a noun, it’s something shared and reciprocated between people. Wherever you find lasting trust, you will find trustworthiness. Trustworthiness comes from character and competence. Character has three facets; integrity, maturity and the abundance mentality. Integrity - the principle of truth; Maturity – courageous and kind; Abundance Mentality – not in competition. Competence also has three facets ; technical, conceptual, and interdependency. Technical – the skill and knowledge to do the job; conceptual – being able to see the big picture; Interdependency – the awareness that life is connected.

Here is a quote from General Norman Schwarzkopf…
“I’ve met a lot of leaders in the army who were very, very competent. But they did not have character. For every job they did well in the Army, they sought reward in the form of promotions, in the form of awards and decorations, in the form of getting ahead at the expense of somebody else, in the form of a piece of paper that awarded them another degree… a sure road to the top. You see, these were competent people but they lacked character. I’ve met a lot of leaders who had superb character, but who lacked competence. They weren’t willing to pay the price of leadership, to go the extra mile because that’s what it took to be a great leader. To lead in the twenty first century… you will be required to have both character and competence.”