Trust is the foundation of leadership. Without trust, you may lead your people for the short-term, but you won’t lead them long because they will not be around long. So how do you build trust? By building a relationship with them, by really knowing them and connecting with them.
Kevin Leman and Bill Pentak state in their book, The Way of the Shepherd, that you need to know the condition of your flock.
“You have to take a personal interest in each of the people who report directly to you….you need to discover their skills and interests. You need to know their goals and dreams, what motivates them when they walk through the door in the morning, what their career ambitions and frustrations are.”
If you want a real relationship with them then you need to know who they really are.
This means being intentional about sacrificing your time to regularly spend with them personally, one-on-one. The old adage that is so true says, if people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Take time to let them know you care. The time you spend will pay for itself in efficiency and effectiveness of each of your people because they will trust you more and will be willing to help make you and your whole team successful.
Simon Sinek explains how and why he named his newest book in this video, but it was only through personally interacting with his publisher that they came up with the name.
