The Importance Of Trustworthy Leadership
Ask ten people to define leadership and you’ll get ten different answers. Still, most answers will contain a common thread. Most will define a leader as someone who takes responsibility for getting things done, inspires the best in others, communicates well, is trustworthy, is emotionally intelligent and focuses on continual self-improvement and growth.
Recently I spoke with Will Basta, cofounder and CRO of Ascend Ecom, a company that helps e-commerce companies launch, operate and scale sustainable, passive income on Walmart and Amazon, and asked about his thoughts on leadership.
Honesty and Integrity
We often hear stories of companies that have been destroyed almost single-handedly by dishonest and greedy leaders. It was no surprise then that Basta placed honesty and integrity as the most important qualities of good leaders.
“How we honor and emphasize honesty and transparency trickles down to how our employees interact with our clients and investors. Integrity is very, very important. We set these standards for our employees by living them ourselves because you must practice what you preach when leading your people,” says Basta.
As Basta points out, principles of integrity cannot merely be “preached” or “barked” to your employees or a collective. They must be lived by everyone in the organization.
The Machine
Basta uses the machine metaphor to explain just how important every person is that makes up the collective.
“We are all human, and while some of us hold C-suite or leadership positions, I think it's important for people who want to be great leaders to know that the company is like an intricate machine with cogs and inner workings,” says Basta. “Just like a wristwatch, a bunch of components and pieces work together collectively to make something come to life.”
If even one of the pieces of the machine is broken or missing, the machine will not work, or at least will not work well. All too often, people in positions of leadership lord themselves over their employees and fail to treat them with dignity and respect. After all, even the leader is part of the grand architecture that makes up the intricate wholeness of “the machine.”
The Trust Factor
When leaders don’t trust the people they’re tasked to lead, then they become micromanagers, not leaders. Sometimes, there are legitimate reasons not to trust people based on their past actions or behavior, but trust always starts with the leader.
If you’re hiring the right people to do a job, but not trusting them to do it, you have a broken system. Employees need to feel empowered to do the job that they were hired to do, through training, support, and checks and balances. If you cannot let them fail, then you cannot let them succeed either.
“You should be hiring great candidates, and that means hiring people you can trust and then actually trusting them,” says Basta. “I have seen people in positions of leadership try to micromanage everything their people do, and it only leads to MACRO failure.”
It’s true. If you hire people to do a job, why not trust them to do the job they were hired for, and if you think they aren’t doing a great job, why did you hire them?
Being a leader is not about ruling or dictating, but about being an influential and shining beacon of trust and integrity. Building morale is critical, and integrity, honesty and trust originate with the actions of the leader. Leaders who do not trust their team and who cannot be trusted in return might succeed in the short term, but not for long. Trust your people, but make sure that first, you are trustworthy. Value the humanity in others, and the roles they play to make your entire operation work at its best.