Stop trust becoming a leadership weakness

The world needs more high-trust leaders – leaders who support those around them, respect other people’s viewpoints and who are open to being challenged and challenging others to bring out their best. We need leaders who trust and believe in people.

It goes without saying that high-trust leaders are critical to a thriving culture. They model the right behaviours and don’t tolerate toxicity. After all, leadership behaviours set the benchmark for employee interactions. You can’t have a high-performance culture without trust. And it starts with leaders.

But, could being a high-trust leader be detrimental? To this I would offer an unequivocal ‘yes’; but not in the way you may think.

Being perceived as a high-trust leader is beneficial and produces fantastic business outcomes. Yet there is a difference between being a highly trusted leader and one that is too trusting. Peers and direct reports typically rate a highly trusted leader favourably. But a too trusting leader can unintentionally cause trust issues.

Don’t get me wrong, if