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The Trusted Leader

Saturday, November 20, 2010 - by Steve Gladis

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The defining word for leaders is trust. With trust, there is nothing leaders can't get done; without trust, nothing gets done without lots of pain, cost, and time. I studied leadership researchers (Goleman, Tichy, Kouzes and Posner, Goldsmith, and others) and finally was able to hang their collective research onto a simple, three-part model developed more than 2,500 years ago by Aristotle - the smartest guy ever.

Aristotle said that Greek leaders had to have three critical elements to be trustworthy. We can easily apply his powerful and elegant model to leaders of today. Picture a large triangle. At the base of that triangle, trusted leaders have to have good character; on the next leg of that triangle, good sense; and finally, the last leg, good will.

Good character is composed of what I call the five Cs:

Candor - Trusted leaders don't lie, cheat, or steal. Honesty has topped American values ever since data was collected about values.
Communication - Leaders know how to speak and write clearly and don't waffle, waver, or confuse.
Commitment and consistency - Leaders make you feel like they're there for the duration and are both steady and reliable. Mercurial, career-addicted bosses get the big thumbs down.
Courage - Trusted leaders do the right thing at the right time for the right reason - not what's politically expedient or career enhancing.

Good sense is composed of the

five Ks:

Know self - Trusted leaders are aware of their own strengths and weaknesses; know-it-all bosses don't know much about leadership.
Know others - Trusted leaders know how to use people's strengths, rather than forcing them to constantly improve their weaknesses.
Know their stuff - Leaders have to know their disciplines (law, medicine, business, and so forth.) well, not necessarily be the smartest in the company.
Know how to learn - Leaders who learn and adapt to a changing world survive; bosses who stick to same-old stuff fade like dinosaurs.
Know how to teach - Leaders who teach everyone all the time are conducting true succession planning, which isn't just an annual executive retreat exercise.

Goodwill is composed of the five Hs:

Honor self - Trusted leaders have integrity. They have defined values and execute on those values daily. Bosses who say one thing and do the other are unreliable
and untrusted.
Honor others - Leaders honor others and treat them as colleagues, not as minions only doing their bidding.
The last three Hs are honor your company, community, and country. In short, those who strive toward purpose - something bigger than themselves - find that nothing but the best comes back to them.

Communities of Practice: Human Capital , Senior Leaders & Executives , Workforce Development

Authored By:

Steve Gladis

Steve Gladis serves as president and CEO of Steve Gladis Leadership Partners, a leadership development firm focused on helping leaders achieve both success and significance through executive coaching, training and development, and motivational speaking. At George Mason University, he teaches a Leadership Communication series to first-line and mid-level leaders.

Author of 15 books on leadership and communication, Steve is a former member of the University of Virginia’s faculty and served as an Associate Dean and the Director of the University’s Northern Virginia Center. He is currently an executive coach for the Darden Business School’s Executive MBA program. Dr. Gladis has his doctorate in education and is a certified coach with the International Coach Federation.

A former FBI special agent and US Marine Corps officer, he is also a committed civic and academic leader. Steve serves on the Executive Boards of both the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce and The Community Foundation of Northern Virginia and is active in philanthropic activities in the Greater Metropolitan Washington, DC area. His company donates 25% of its annual net profits back to the community.

Steve writes a leadership blog: Survival Leadership.

Contact information:
E-mail: sgladis@stevegladis.com │Telephone: 703.424.3780 │Location: The George Mason Enterprise Center: 4031 University Dr. Fairfax, VA 22030.

The Trusted Leader

Authored By:

Steve Gladis

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