Does your team trust you?

Mike Figliuolo, author of  One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership,  has a great blog post over at The Leader Lab.  Figliuolo is a graduate of West Point and currently serves on the faculty at Duke.  He examines the "real reason your team doesn't trust you."  Figliuolo argues that trust in a leader erodes when the team doesn't know what to expect from you.  He says, "Trust is about an ability to rely upon or expect a predictable outcome.  When you act in ways your team doesn’t expect, it erodes trust and makes them wonder what you’re going to do next." 

Figliuolo goes on to argue that every leader should articulate their own personal leadership philosophy.  They should share that philosophy with their team members.  Finally, they should try to behave in a manner that is consistent with that philosophy on a day-to-day basis.  Consistency of action, in line with your personal leadership philosophy, proves critical to building and maintaining trust.