Trust in Leadership
By: Joel Dvoskin
II want to devote this month’s corner to leadership. I teach a course on leadership for the University of Arizona College of Medicine. Every year on day one, I ask the class to describe the characteristics of someone they would want as their own leader. The answers almost always include a handful of favorites. Year after year, some of the most popular answers have been personal attributes like integrity, decency, kindness, emotional intelligence, fairness, and trust. Today I want to focus on trust.
Who do we trust?
My first thought may surprise you. We trust the person who puts the label on a bottle of Tylenol. (Or maybe it’s a machine.) Whoever puts it there, we pop those pills into our unsuspecting mouths without a thought. Why? We know those pills won’t kill us because they’re not poison. For the younger readers, you’ll be surprised to learn that wasn’t always true. In 1982, seven people died after consuming capsules of Extra-Strength Tylenol that had been laced with Cyanide. Look it up. The perpetrator was never caught. Johnson and Johnson recalled 31 million bottles of its best-selling product, and tamper-resistant packaging suddenly became a thing.
What do the Tylenol murders have to do with leadership? Trust. In order to trust people, we need to be able to predict them. To avoid bankruptcy, Johnson and Johnson had to regain our trust, to convince us that they were predictable. Chaos, shock, and fear can force obedience, but only for a little for a little while. Leaders who want to succeed over time have to figure out a way to support a culture where obedience is not necessary, because the people being led understand and internalize the organization’s goals. At Heroes, we acknowledge the simple truth that leaders alone can’t create cultures, but they can support and inspire a culture of mutuality, where suck-ups don’t thrive and the workers watch out for each other. Workers tend to trust and respect leaders who trust and respect them. My friends Karen Collins Rice and Sue Rahr call this trust-centered leadership, and it leads to a culture of active bystandership, where status is earned not by fawning and flattery, but by service to each other.
In a culture of active bystandership, we can trust each other because we can predict each other. I know that you will do the right thing and tell me what I need to hear (the truth) instead of what you think I want to hear. Together, we prevent harm, every chance we get. We celebrate each other, and in return we get to value and respect ourselves.
If you’re reading this column, you’re either part of the Heroes family or thinking about joining us. Either way, welcome to our culture.