(Cont'd)

James Kouzes and Barry Posner offer five key dimensions that underlie the concept and experience of trust: integrity, competence, consistency, loyalty and openness.

Thursday morning, I was on a conference call with the leadership team of the Black Professional Coaches Alliance. We spoke about integrity and what it meant to us. In its simplest form, I said that integrity is telling the truth, doing what you say you’ll do, being reliable. On a grander scale, it’s living consistent with your own internal value system, your core principles and ideals. Transformational leaders have clearly articulated and strongly felt values that guide their actions – that keep them in integrity with themselves, allowing them to be fully transparent to the people around them.

Leaders must demonstrate a level of technical and interpersonal competence, knowledge and skill. They don’t need to know everything, but they must possess enough wisdom that people respect and are willing to follow them. People must have confidence that the leader will be able to do what he or she promises and will deliver on commitments made.

Consistency relates to a leader’s reliability, predictability and good judgment. If there are regular discrepancies between a leader’s words and actions, credibility will be lost. The phrase “Do as I say, not as I do” is the antithesis of transformational leadership.

Loyalty is the willingness to protect and save face for another person. It speaks to the concern transformational leaders show for the people they lead. It reflects an elevation of the needs of others as they pursue the organizations goals. When someone has demonstrated great loyalty, it inspires others to reciprocate and take actions or risks they might otherwise have avoided.

Openness is the propensity for full disclosure, being vulnerable, with no hidden agendas. When it appears that all cards to be on the table, people feel secure and comfortable that they can reasonably predict future events. They aren’t working in a vacuum, or feeling uncertain about the environment in which they are operating.

How do you build trust? Fernando Bartolome and I offer some suggestions.