This document discusses the importance of trust in leadership. It defines trust as a positive expectation that others will not act opportunistically. There are five dimensions that underlie trust: integrity, competence, consistency, loyalty, and openness. There are three types of trust in organizations - deterrence-based, knowledge-based, and identification-based. Effective leaders increase trust through consistency, openness, and building identification with followers over time. Trust increases group cohesion and productivity, while lack of trust undermines performance and can destroy organizations. Framing language is also important for leaders to shape meaning and inspire followers.

1. 1.3. Trust: The Foundation of Leadership
Trust, or lack of trust, is an increasingly important
leadership issue in today’s organizations
The Meaning of Trust and the Five Trust Dimensions
What is Trust?
 Trust is a positive expectation that another will not –
through words, actions, or decisions act-
opportunistically
 Positive expectation assumes knowledge and
familiarity about the other party
 Opportunistically refers to the inherent risk and
vulnerability in any trusting relationship

2. • Trust involves making oneself vulnerable, as
when, for example, we disclose intimate
information or rely on another’s promises
• But trust is not taking risk per se; rather it is a
willingness to take risk
• This willingness to take risks is common to all
trust situations

3. The key Dimensions that underlie the Concept of
Trust
Five dimensions that undercut trust: integrity,
competence, consistency, loyalty, and openness
Integrity refers to honesty and truthfulness
• The most critical when someone assesses another’s
trustworthiness
Competence encompasses an individual’s technical and
interpersonal knowledge and skills
• Does the person know what he or she is talking
about?

4. Consistency relates to an individual’s reliability,
predictability, and good judgment in handling
situations
• Inconsistencies between words and action
decrease trust
• Particularly relevant for managers
• Nothing is noticed more quickly than a
discrepancy between what executives preach
and what they expect their associates to
practice

5. Loyalty is the willingness to protect and save
face for another person
• Trust requires that you can depend on someone
not to act opportunistically
• The final dimension of trust is openness
• Can you rely on the person to give you the full
truth?

6. Trust and Leadership
• Trust is a primary attribute associated with
leadership and when this trust is broken, it can
have serious adverse effects on a group’s
performance
• You can’t lead people who don’t trust you
• Part of the leader’s task is working with people
to find and solve problems, but whether
leaders gain access to the knowledge and
creative thinking they need to solve problems
depends on how much people trust them

7. • Trust and trust worthiness modulate the
leader’s access to knowledge and cooperation
• When followers trust a leader, they are willing
to be vulnerable to the leader’s actions –
confident that their rights and interest will not
be abused
• People are unlikely to look up to or follow
someone whom they perceive as dishonest or
who is likely to take advantage of them

8. Types of Trust and their Implications to
Leadership
Types of Trust
• There are three types of trust in organizational
relationships
1. Deterrence – Based
• The most fragile relationships are contained in
deterrence-based trust
• One violation or inconsistency can destroy the
relationship

9. • It is based on fear of reprisal if the trust is
violated
• Individuals who are in this type of relationship
do what they say because they fear the
consequences of not following through on their
obligations
• Deterrence-based trust will work only to the
degree that punishment is possible,
consequences are clear, and the punishment is
actually imposed if the trust is violated
• Your honesty could be explained in deterrence
terms

10. Knowledge-Based Trust
• Most organizational relationships are rooted
in knowledge-based trust
• Trust is based on the behavioral predictability
that comes from a history of interaction
• It exists when you have adequate information
about someone to understand them well
enough to be able to predict their behavior
accurately
• Knowledge-based trust relies on information
rather than deterrence

11. • Knowledge of the other party and predictability of his
or her behavior replaces the contracts, penalties, and
legal arrangements more typical of deterrence-based
trust
• This knowledge develops over time, largely as a
function of experience that builds confidence of
trustworthiness and predictability
• The better you know someone, the more accurately
you can predict what he or she will do
• Predictability enhances trust – even if the other is
predictably untrustworthy because the ways that the
other will violate the trust can be predicted

12. Identification-based Trust
• The highest level of trust is achieved when there is an
emotional connection between the parties
• It allows one party to act as an agent for the other and
substitute for that person in interpersonal transaction
• Identification-based trust exists because the parties
understand each other intentions and appreciate the
other’s wants and desires
• This mutual understanding is developed to the point
that each can effectively act for the other
• Controls are minimal at this level
• You don’t need to monitor the other party because
there exists unquestioned loyalty

13. • Increased identification enables each to think
like the other, feel like the other, and respond
like the other
• You see identification-based trust occasionally
in organizations among people who have
worked together for long periods of time and
have a depth of experience that allows them to
know each other inside and out

14. Basic Principles of Trust
• People who are trusting demonstrate their trust by
increasing their openness to others, disclosing
relevant information, and expressing their true
intentions
• People who mistrust do not reciprocate
• They conceal information and act opportunistically
to take advantage of others
• To defend against repeated exploitation, trusting
people are driven to mistrust
• A few mistrusting people can poison an entire
organization

15. Trust begets trust
• In the same way that mistrust drives out trust
• Exhibiting trust in others tends to encourage
reciprocity
• Effective leaders increase trust in small
increments and allow others to respond in
kind
• By offering trust in only small increments,
leaders limit penalty or loss that might occur
if their trust is exploited

16. Growth often masks mistrust
• Growth gives leaders opportunities for rapid
promotion, and for increased power and
responsibility
• In this environment, leaders tend to solve
problems with quick fixes that elude immediate
detection by higher management and leave the
problems arising from mistrust to their successors
• Leaders can take a short-term perspective because
they are not likely to be around to have to deal
with the long-term consequences of their
decisions
• The lingering effects of mistrust become apparent
to the successors when the growth slows

17. Decline or downsizing tests the highest levels of trust
• The corollary to the previous growth principle is
that decline or downsizing tends to undermine even
the most trusting environment
• Layoffs are threatening
• Even after layoffs have been completed, those who
survive feel less secure in their jobs
• When employers break the loyalty bond by having
off employees, there is less willingness among
workers to trust what management says

18. Trust increases cohesion
• Trust holds people together
• Trust means people have confidence that
they can rely on each other
• If one person needs help or falters, that
person knows that the others will be there to
fill in
• When faced with adversity, group members
who display trust in each other will work
together and exert high levels of effort to
achieve the group’s goals

19. Mistrusting groups self-destruct
• When group members mistrust each other,
they repel and separate
• They pursue their own interests rather than
the groups
• Members of mistrusting groups tend to be
suspicious of each other, are constantly on
guard against exploitation, and restrict
communication with others in the group
• These actions tend to undermine and
eventually destroy the group

20. Mistrust generally reduces productivity
• Mistrust almost always reduces productivity
• Mistrust focuses attention on the differences in
member interests, making it difficult for people to
visualize common goals
• People respond by concealing information and
secretly pursing their own interests
• When employees encounter problems, they avoid
calling on others, fearing that those others will take
advantage of them
• A climate of mistrust tends to stimulate dysfunctional
forms of conflict and retard cooperation

21. Framing: Using Words to Shape Meaning and
Inspire Others
Framing is a way to use language to manage
meaning
• It’s way for leaders to influence how events are
seen and understood
• It involves the selection and highlighting of one
or more aspects of a subject while excluding
others
• Framing is analogous to what a photographer
does
• The visual world that exists is essentially
ambiguous

22. Lobbying groups also provide rich
illustrations of the framing concept
• Because in the complex and chaotic
environment in which an increasing number
of leaders work, there is typically
considerable maneuverability with respect to
the facts
• What is real is often what the leader says is
real
• What’s important is what he or she chooses
to say is important

23. • Leaders can use language to influence
followers’ perceptions of the world
• The meaning of events, beliefs about causes
and consequences and visions of the future
• It’s through framing that leaders determine
whether people notice problems, how they
understand and remember problems, and how
they act on those problems
• Framing is a powerful tool by which leaders’
influence how others see and interpret reality