Too many leaders watch The Wolf of Wall Street and think the best leaders are cartoonishly charismatic, risk-takers, and boisterous. The truth is that in the real world, the most effective leaders are the ones who are trusted by their teams. In fact, the importance of trust in leadership cannot be overstated.

So, in this article, we’ll explore how to build trust in leadership. We’ll also explain in detail why it’s so important to do so, and how it can help you improve resilience, decision-making, and communication.

How Do You Build Trust in Leadership Teams?

There it is. The million-dollar question. Before we reel some ideas off, it’s important to note that trust isn’t something that’s earned once and it sticks with you for life. It’s something you build and rebuild every day, especially when it comes to leadership.

With that little disclaimer out of the way, here are some ways you can do it yourself:

Lead with consistency

Trust flourishes when leaders do what they say they’ll do. Sounds obvious, and that’s because it is.

Broken promises, even the small ones you think don’t matter, are the complete opposite of consistency. As a result, they’re a great way to undermine your own credibility and flush trust down the toilet. This can lead to all kinds of issues, even as far as employees quitting.

Be transparent and humble

Your teams aren’t expecting perfection from you. Just honesty.

This can take many forms, but sharing context and reasoning behind your decisions helps remove suspicion or lingering doubt. Not only does this create clarity, but it helps everyone understand what they’re getting behind.

Transparency also means being vulnerable, admitting mistakes, and asking for feedback. Now we know this may be difficult for some of you, but if you put on your big boy (or girl) pants, we know you can do it. And when you do, it shows that you trust those around you, which invites them to do the same.

Stay reliable under pressure

We get it, it can get dicey in leadership positions, but what will set you apart is how you react in difficult moments. Show up, stay calm, and stick to your commitments to really garner the trust of your people and show your mettle.

Aligning around a clear mission and shared values is a fundamental aspect of this, and it keeps everyone singing from the same hymn sheet, no matter what.

Empower others

Empowerment comes from delegating responsibility instead of just tasks. Those around you will rise to the challenge more than they falter, particularly if you incorporate regular feedback loops through check-ins and open channels.

Staying silent and dishing out tasks with no context, on the other hand, is guaranteed to breed doubt and erode trust.

Practical Exercises to Strengthen Trust

Trust is built over time, with small, repeated actions.

How do we do that, we hear you ask? Here are three simple exercises to get you there.

1. Freewriting

Reach for that pen and pad and take five minutes for yourself. Write (without stopping) about how you personally define trust, what builds it for you, and what damages it.

Then, apply this to yourself and those around you to gauge how trustworthy you seem. This can help you uncover blind spots and hidden beliefs you hold.

2. Create a trust strategy

Don’t leave trust to chance, and instead, write a short “trust statement”. This is your personal strategy detailing how you build and maintain trust with your teams.

And don’t just write it and put it in a drawer. Treat it as importantly as you would any business strategy.

3. Truth and self-truth rating

Ask yourself four questions, and rate yourself for each of them out of ten:

1. How often do I tell the truth?
2. How often do I hear the truth from my leadership teams?
3. How much would they trust me out of 10, anonymously?
4. How closely do my words and actions align?

Once you’ve answered these honestly, add one change you could make to improve your score.

Leadership Trust: Quotes to Inspire Leaders

Here are some of our favorite trust quotes to inspire, which are particularly pertinent for leaders:

“Trust is built with consistency.” - Lincoln Chafee

“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” - Ernest Hemingway

“Without trust, there is no leadership. Without leadership, there is no trust.” - Myles Munroe

“Without trust, there is no real teamwork.” - Patrick Lencioni

Simple. Effective. Real. Use these as mottos for your own leadership role, and don’t be afraid to create your own quotes to live by.

How Leadership Styles Influence Trust

Not all leaders inspire trust in the same way, and different leadership styles create different dynamics, and the right approach often depends on both the business situation and the level of trust within the team. Broadly speaking, we’ve come across a few leadership styles that most fall under, with each of them bringing a unique approach to trust.

Here’s what they are and how they compare:

• Autocratic leadership: With autocratic leaders, decision-making is centralized, and they retain control. This limits trust, as authority is the priority instead of collaboration. In emergencies, it might do some good, but long-term, it risks severe disengagement.
• Democratic leadership: Here, decisions are made collectively, with input sought from the wider group. This builds higher trust because people feel involved and valued. However, it can also slow down execution.
• Compassionate leadership: These leaders build trust through empathy and care, but in some situations, lack the decisiveness to take action. Take a PR crisis. Here, compassionate leadership is great, but the leader needs to establish trust by taking action and making decisions with the relevant people to manage the crisis. 
• Adaptive leadership: Adaptive leaders adjust their style to the situation and the maturity of their teams. Trust is flexible and tightened when accountability is critical, and loosened when it’s driving results.

And in case you wanted to explore this further, check out our upcoming Leadership Styles Masterclass. Here, you’ll also learn which styles naturally build trust, which risk breaking it, and how to adapt your own style to get the balance right.

Final Thoughts

Trust isn’t a single facet of leadership you can live or live without, but the one that makes everything else possible. It allows for honest communication, real accountability, and resilient employee performance, which makes it gold dust for leaders.

Fortunately, it’s something you can build over time with repeated, deliberate actions. The real challenge is doing the work to make it happen and creating conditions where trust flourishes. Ask yourself truthfully if this is the case, because you might just be unknowingly eroding it.