Our Trust Deficit

The word "deficit" has become embedded in our modern culture. From trade deficit to fiscal deficit to entitlement deficit to our infrastructure funding deficit - - we are falling short on a whole host of fronts. But our most overlooked deficit might be our most important - - the trust deficit.

Gaps in reliability, truth, ability, and responsibility - - we are running an extremely high trust deficit between our citizenry and employees and leadership class. Maybe it's the eight million individuals laid off over the last several years or our inability to solve important and critical national and international problems. Whatever the reasons, a rather damaging gap in trust has developed between leaders and followers in many of our corporations and public institutions.

Trust is a funny thing - - it takes years to develop but minutes to destroy. You can measure the development of trust in inches - - but the collapse of trust is measured in feet and yards. Faith and hope - - you take these two attributes out of the mix and the trust matrix of cooperation, collaboration, certainty, and conviction becomes "a close run thing" between our leaders and followers.

George S. Barrett, chairman and C.E.O of Cardinal Health, a heath care company based in Dublin, Ohio, does a great job of putting trust in the context of leadership:

Articulating it in a single sound bite is hard. But I do think leadership is largely about trust, and trust has a couple of dimensions. It starts with competence. People have to believe that you really know what you're doing. They have to really trust in your judgment because the data is so complex out there that they have to believe you can see through all the silliness and have some sense of the right course.

People have to trust that you have a point of view about what this enterprise is going to look like. What do we seek to be? And they have to trust that you understand them, that you get them, and that you have their interests at heart. When you can do these things, it can be a powerful combination.

I think a leader has to be comfortable with having the weight on their shoulders. It can be hard, and it's a different experience if you haven't had to experience this. That's not for everybody, but I like it because I don't feel like I'm alone. I wind up bringing the group together, and we own the weight. I love that part of it.

I also believe that leadership is a two-way street. I tell my team, "I expect to learn from you as well as you'll learn from me."