Ask a leader whether they are trusted and most will say yes. Ask the people who work for them and the answer is often more interesting: trusted with some things, not others, by some people more than others.
That gap is the whole subject. A trusted leader isn’t a type of person. It’s a verdict other people reach.
Who decides whether a leader is trusted?
The people around them. Not the leader, not their manager, not a competency framework.
Trust is someone’s confidence in you with something they care about, which makes it their judgement. Roger Mayer and colleagues described it as a willingness to be vulnerable to someone, based on what you expect them to do. The leader’s intentions don’t enter into it directly. What enters into it is what people have seen.
Tony Simons made the same point about integrity. Whether a manager’s words and deeds line up is something other people perceive. A manager can’t audit it from their own side, because they always know what they meant.
So the useful question for a leader isn’t “am I trustworthy?”. It’s “what have they seen me do?”.
What are people looking for in a leader?
Researchers usually describe trustworthiness in three parts: another person’s view of your ability, your benevolence and your integrity. A meta-analysis of 132 samples by Colquitt and colleagues found those judgements related to how far people were willing to take risks and how well they performed.
Trust Leader puts it more practically, as the five Trust Questions. They are written from the leader’s side, about the people they lead, because the answer lives with those people:
- Do they believe what I say?
- Do they believe I’ll do what I said?
- Do they believe I can handle what’s needed?
- Do they feel I really understand them?
- Do they believe I act with their interests in mind?
A trusted leader isn’t one who answers all five perfectly. It’s one whose people have settled the question that matters for what they need from them.
What does a trusted leader actually do?
Things people can see. Each of the five questions is answered by behaviour, not by values on a wall. Here is one behaviour for each, from the 20 that strengthen trust, in their exact wording:
- Do they believe what I say? 1. Say what is true without using vague or confusing language.
- Do they believe I’ll do what I said? 5. Give updates on progress and raise issues early when there are risks or delays.
- Do they believe I can handle what’s needed? 11. Say clearly when something cannot be delivered.
- Do they feel I really understand them? 12. Listen and let others finish before responding.
- Do they believe I act with their interests in mind? 18. Explain the reasoning behind decisions that impact others.
Notice how unglamorous the list is. None of it is about vision or presence. It’s about whether the leader is predictable in the ways that matter to the person relying on them.
Why are some capable leaders still not trusted?
Because the five questions split into two groups, and being strong in one doesn’t cover the other.
The first three are about delivery. The last two are relational. A leader who hits every deadline can still be the last to hear about a problem, because people aren’t sure they’ll be understood or treated fairly when they raise it. A warm, approachable leader can still not be handed the critical work, because people aren’t sure it will get done.
Here is how that looks. A manager is known as the most reliable in the department: every report on time, every figure right. Her team still goes round her to raise concerns. Nothing about her delivery is in doubt. What is in doubt is question four: when someone brings her a problem, she starts solving it before they’ve finished explaining. Letting people finish is a smaller change than anything on her development plan, and it’s the one her team would notice.
How does someone become a trusted leader?
One relationship and one behaviour at a time, through practice people can see.
Pick one person whose confidence matters for something specific. Work out which of the five questions is actually unresolved for them. Choose the behaviour that answers it, and use it on real occasions. How do you choose one behaviour to practise? sets out that choice.
For the definition and the evidence, see What is trust in leadership, and why does it matter?. For trust across a whole team, see How do you develop trust in a team?.