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Part VI: The Methods Of Trust Leadership

Chapter List

Part Overview

Inner leadership is a function of people in interdependent, voluntary, and trusting relationship (Crosby). Effective inner leadership can only take place within a community where both leaders and followers are free to trust the purposes, actions, and intent of others enough to risk themselves in joint relationship. This is and has always been a characteristic of leadership. Still, today many theorists, responding to a specious social and emotional appeal to inclusiveness, propound individual difference, independence, and diversity over cooperative interdependence. This is a formula for failure. Leaders can only lead volunteers who have freely chosen to share their values, vision, methods, and techniques.

Leaders in the middle of the corporation can only lead people who are in harmony with the values and purposes of their work community and its leader. Indeed, community is founded on the root word, unity, not difference, on harmony, not diversity. There is little hope that blind acceptance of coworkers with multiple and diverse internally competing value systems will produce stable, effective, and responsive, economic, governmental, or social organization. Of course, leaders should employ workers from as broad a pool of potential colleagues as possible - it is not only the law but good business and morally demanded. But the leadership challenge in the new millennium is to quickly shape these diverse workers into a work community characterized by shared vision, values, methods, and attitudes - the only venue where colleagues can trust each other enough to work collaboratively.

Either in-the-middle leaders foster freedom of choice broadly in the work community, or, over time, members will estrange themselves. The workplace created by the inner leader simply cannot sustain either human existence or individual liberty for long outside the interdependent communities to which they belong (Etzioni). The techniques of trust leadership are key inner leadership techniques. These techniques set inner leaders apart from top leaders or managers. The three techniques described in Part VI sum up a growing list of knowledge, skills, and techniques that facilitate cooperative group action. They include learning to trust others, creating community, and developing stewardship structures.

Chapter 22: Method 19: Learning to Trust Others

Today, active, dynamic leadership is scarce in society and its institutions. The reason is that today's workplace is characterized by diverse people and a pervasive mind-set that values individual differences as the basis of forming work communities. This situation and this mind-set tend to pull the organization apart rather than integrate it. And a unified, harmonious culture is essential to any leadership, especially inner leadership. If inner leaders are to be successful in realizing their personal and professional goals, they need to do something to integrate diverse workers into a functioning community defined as a cluster of interdependent coworkers who share values, methods, behaviors, and goals and who trust each other enough to work together.

Given the need for a harmonious culture, the task is to build a trust culture within which leader and led jointly agree to link their efforts in achieving mutually valued goals using agreed-upon processes. This task is complicated by the fact that the leader–follower relationship in the middle of the organization is essentially voluntary. Inner leadership is a problem of integrating workers into a functioning community of shared interests that can meet the needs of both. The task is as much a matter of community culture creation as it is of the inner leader adopting a style of leadership that prioritizes interactive trust. In fact, both are essential to success.

Defining Trust

Part of the present confusion about leadership versus management is that analysts have seen leadership in system, control, and structure terms. The conventional wisdom is that to control individuals, leaders need only to change formal structures or work systems. This model denigrates individual workers and treats them as interchangeable parts, cogs in the corporate machine. Workers are asked to change as the organization's leader sees a need, whether they want to, are ready for, or even are capable of the proposed change. Inner leaders use a more effective model, one that suggests that to change we must change people's attitudes first and let them in turn change system and structure. Shaping a culture in which members can trust each other enough to work together in this way lets inner leaders create a mental and physical context within which they can lead effectively (Klenke).

The Impact of Trust on Culture and Leadership

Trust is a critical element in defining inner leaders, as well as the cultures they create that sustain effective leadership (Vanfleet and Yukl). Trust also is prerequisite to any attempt by leaders to transform (change) their work community's culture (Sashkin). Top leaders can function without trust - using coercive authority power. But inner leadership of volunteer followers is successful only in a context of mutual trust based on shared vision, ideals, and values.

The process of gaining trust relies first on having or securing some accurate, real (true) knowledge of the person, thing, or situation trusted. As inner leaders exercise trust in a follower (or a program or event) in the absence of direct knolwledge, that action empowers the follower to change to become what the leader trusts him or her to be. Each successful attempt reenforces that trust. Successive positive experiences with another person cumulate until the leader comes fully to trust that person to be and do what he or she at first only hoped he or she would be and do.

A part of the inner leader's willingness to trust depends on the work community's culture - created by the leader. That is, the ambient work culture affects the inner leader's willingness to trust, and the level of willingness to trust helps define the culture. Without the constraints imposed by the cultural surround, leaders could not exercise trust at all.

The inner leader–created work community's culture defines trust relationships, their quality and extent. And, the leader's actions apply it in everything he or she does or says. In fact all aspects of the working relationship are based on the quality of the mid-level leader's trust - of superiors, peers, subordinates, and all stakeholders. The problem today is not a lack of leaders but a lack of trusting environments within which leadership in the complex realms of the middle of the corporation is possible and without which it is impossible.

Creating a compatible culture in the middle of the organization becomes, therefore, a central task of inner leadership.

Interpreting Trust

We can define trust as reliance on the integrity or authenticity of people or things. It is a logical, thoughtful hope in their reality, their authenticity; in a word, in their truth. The idea of trust implies both an expectation and a personal obligation for both parties to the relationship to be authentic, trustworthy, reliable. It places obligation on both the truster and the object of that trust. It is a risk relationship but a necessary one. It implies proactivity, takes time, and becomes a unifying and coalescing idea essential to any working relationship. Inner leaders base their trust on a given level of truth, not falsity. The trust relationship includes an expectation and a personal obligation to be authentic, trustworthy, reliable, which is provable by ensuing experience. Seen in this light, it is a value supporting the culture that helps define how and in what degree members value others.

Trust is a risk relationship, but a necessary one (And, 1972). When we trust another person we agree to accept as true what we can now only assume is true. In theory, we do not need to trust in situations of absolute knowledge of the truth of a given person, action, or event. In these cases there is no risk, we know. Such absolute knowledge, however, is rarely present. Hence the need for cultures that support trust.

Methods Of Practicing Trust Leadership

Trust has long been considered a factor in leadership. However, recent research suggests that in addition to a desirable leadership trait trust can be an important strategic competitive advantage. This research proposes that leaders who develop relationships based on trust can improve their work community's performance. Trust, they say, must be deserved. Leaders who trust too much may not only be fooled but also may damage their work communities. Those inner leaders who do not trust enough can become isolated and create a detrimental work environment. Optimal trust is based on prudent relationships and is shaped by a variety of factors, such as the trustworthiness of the leader and extant social norms (Fairholm).

Being able to develop trusting relationships is particularly important when inner leaders and their work-community members have interdependent relationships with other stakeholders, such as their suppliers, industry partners, and customers. Such interdependencies are increasingly common in today's work communities. When corporations are committed to such relationships, they must seek operating inner leaders who are willing to trust and are themselves trustworthy and credible.

Becoming Trustworthy

Inner leaders cannot demand trust from others. It must be earned. And that takes time. While leaders can ask others for their trust, they cannot enforce that demand simply because they have the authority to hire and fire. Trust is a gift, given freely by others because it is based in their confidence in their leaders, their respect, even their admiration for them.

Developing trust relationships, like creating cultures, shares common elements since trust is an inextricable part of any culture. As they strive to be both trusting and trustworthy, inner leaders need to master several specific techniques to become experts in the technique of trust. Learning to trust asks inner leaders to first become trustworthy. Not until their followers see that a leader's words and deeds are true (authentic) will they offer their trust. As this part of the trust relationship develops, leaders can take actions that communicates their trust of followers, the other half of the trust relationship.

Inner leaders prepare themselves to be expert in the trust technique by mastering the following elements of the trust relationship.

Leading

Several factors that condition the process of developing trust have been noted by a variety of writers. For example, Bennis and Nanus say leading so followers can predict the leader's actions or behavior builds trust. Most writers agree that leading on the basis of consistent and persistent open communication is essential in the trust-development process. Sinatar suggests that leader–follower cooperation is another key to developing trust. He also says that a gentle manner is important and that congruent leader actions, where both word and deed convey the same message, is essential. And, Greenleaf says a leader's record of service to followers is critical in defining the leader's trust relationship with followers.

Predictability

To the degree that the leader is predictable, to that degree he or she builds trustworthiness. Erratic and or irregular behavior limits trust. Followers appear to trust their leaders only as they can confidently predict what they will do in a given situation. Trust and predictability also imply truth. People trust when they are confident that the relationship will produce a true result - that they will get what they expect.

Acceptance of Self and Others

Trust is part of open social relationships. Inner leaders convey their trustworthiness as they are willing to be open about themselves and others. Such leaders are willing to communicate their strengths and, just as important, their weaknesses. As they communicate their true selves, they encourage followers to behave similarly. Work-community decision making is therefore easier, and determination of joint aims and methods of accomplishing them is facilitated. Mutual acceptance also encourages intrapersonal and interpersonal control, the need to participate in work-community action, and appreciation of difference in others.

Assumptions

Inner leaders' assumptions about life dictate their professional actions (Barns). Barnes identified three assumptions that guide people's trust behavior and that of their leaders. The first assumption is that important issues fall into two opposing camps exemplified by either–or thinking. The second is the idea that hard data and facts are better than soft ideas. And finally, there is the assumption that the world in general is an unsafe place. These assumptions tend to lead us away from full trust of others' actions, words, or statements. When inner leaders act opposite to these three assumptions, they increase the level of follower trust in them.

Authentic Caring

When followers see the inner leader's behavior as both consistent and caring, they can develop positive assumptions about the relationship; and this kind of relationship is the basis of the expectation that accompanies trust. When followers have a perception that their leaders authentically care for them (Gibb), see the leader as open, and feel that he or she is personally interested in them, they are inclined to trust him or her. While caring is a risk relationship, inner leaders' willingness to demonstrate caring enhances their inherent trustworthiness. Fairholm says trust protects and heightens the dignity of followers. Caring leader behavior communicates inner leaders' desire to serve, that is, their willingness to minister to the needs followers have. As this behavior becomes a routine part of the leader's relationships with a follower, the work community changes and becomes more supportive of interpersonal trust.

Ethical Considerations

The idea of ethics is imbedded in the idea of culture, custom, and character (Sims). Ethical behavior is that behavior work-community members accept as right and good as opposed to wrong, bad, or evil. In the work community it is sometimes institutionalized in a document codifying the work community's values and norms. It is also reflected in the institutional structures, interpersonal relationships, and sanction systems. Most often, and most influential, the community's ethical foundation is a function of the values implicitly revealed in its leader. The inner leader's actions, decisions, and comments more than anything else determine the level of follower trust in him or her.

Ethical leadership is a task of setting and enforcing one ethical standard as opposed to all other possible standards, some of which also may be good. It asks the leader to articulate a clear, compelling, and useful set of values to guide the action of individuals in the work community. Once attained, a given leader's trustworthiness must be continually maintained, improved, and reenergized. Any substantive change in trust risks a change in the ethical climate as well. Inner leaders ensure that their ethical values foundation keeps pace with changes in the work community. As people with differing ethical standards come into the work force, the leader's challenge is to build a new ethics that is founded in the past and is responsive to the future.

Individual Character

We can also view a leader's trustworthiness as either a characteristic of the individual, a factor in the situation, or both (Klimoski and Karol). For Klimoski and Karol, trust is a way of life. They view trust as an expectancy held by individuals that they can rely upon the word, promise, or statement of another person. In their view, trust is a hallmark of a healthy work community (Terry). The level of trust the leader creates by his or her actions in the work community affects member willingness to solve problems creatively. It also affects the degree of defensiveness present in the workplace (Gibb). Meadow, Parnes, and Reese suggest that a trusted leader affects the degree of problem-solving effectiveness of the work community. For them, a worker who does not trust others will distort, conceal, or disguise feelings or opinions that he or she believes will increase his or her exposure in the work community. They also correlate high leader trustworthiness levels with honesty. Trustworthiness is critical in the middle of the work community where the leader desires spontaneous behavior and where frankness is essential.

Learning to Trust Others

Developing trustworthiness is difficult. Developing a capacity to trust others is equally difficult. It is not that the techniques are complicated, they are not. The problem is one of mental willingness to risk trusting others. Handy says to trust another asks the inner leader to take a chance on the other person. Trust is a risk relationship that increases the inner leader's vulnerability. And's work, including a survey of 4,200 supervisors, suggests that high trust relationships stimulate higher performance. Handy revived Rogers's assertion that we can causally link trust to increased originality and emotional stability.

Trust or distrust is cumulative - the more the inner leader trusts others the more trusting the overall relationship. Alternatively, the more leaders distrust others, the more distrust is present in the work community. Breaking this cycle is difficult and can involve the leader in either of two sets of relationship actions. In the first, the follower strives to gain the leader's trust. This is hard for the follower to do. It requires maturity, strength, and perseverance. The second approach is for leaders to give their trust. This also takes strength.

Trusting behavior is that which shows a willingness to be vulnerable to another person (Rossiter and Pearch). The mental state that allows the inner leader to trust another person is reflected in an attitude of faith or confidence in that person. This faith is such that the leader believes the other person will behave in ways that will not produce negative results. Thus, to trust another person is to have an unquestioned belief in and reliance on someone or something. Confidence implies trust based on good reasons, evidence, or experience. Trust is a condition that asks inner leaders to be willing to share their intimate feelings.

The level of trust is contingent on several situational factors. One involves settings in which the trusted person's behavior affects the leader in nontrivial ways. Willingness to trust others also develops in situations where the leader can predict with some accuracy a given behavior or result from his or her actions. In trust situations, inner leaders need to be able to predict with some degree of confidence the trusted one's response. A final condition of the trust situation that Rossiter and Pearch describe has to do with alternative options. Trust is possible when the trusting persons can do more than trust. That is, they can increase or decrease their vulnerability to the other.

Trusting others also flows from self-trust. Effective inner leaders have confidence in their own ability, integrity, and ethical fidelity. This kind of self-trust comes as a result of several characteristics leaders exhibit. Among them, the most important are knowledge, responsibility, and faith. Knowledge refers to the stored truth leaders gain resulting from their cumulative learning and experience. Responsibility defines the inner leader's acceptance of accountability for self and for his or her work and other actions. Faith is confidence in the correctness, the appropriateness of a course of action, and the ability to attain desired goals.

Self-trust lets leaders trust others, It helps insure loyalty, cooperation, efficiency, and satisfaction. The inner leader's willingness to change, which is also important in learning to trust others, is dependent largely on the trust levels present in their relationships with other communities - besides the immediate work community. Feelings of trust develop initially by the way in which two people interact. These feelings become established only after a series of incidents that prove the intrinsic level of trust in the relationships. Established work community values also influence the development of feelings conducive to trusting others. However, it is only though direct interaction that inner leaders develop a deep conviction that others are worthy of their trust.

There are several critical personal characteristics inner leaders develop to facilitate their capacity to trust others.

Integrity

People of integrity are honest, authentic, and dependable. Their motives are known. They are open and willing to expose details of self with others and share how the other person's behavior is affecting them. They are feeling, communicate truthfully and authentically about who they are and what they think is important. They are also discreet, never violating a confidence. Inner leaders develop these characteristics in sufficient strength to let them trust the words and action of others. Their task is also seeing these qualities in followers when they may not always be obvious.

Patience

It takes time - a long time - to learn to truly trust someone else. While inner leaders may volunteer their trust on first meeting, a fully trusting relationship has to mature out of the matrix of shared experiences. Trusting others is not a one-time event. It rarely sprouts full-blown at the instant of the leader's first contact with a follower. It is the result of a process of interaction that matures over time. This element of a trust relationship makes development of patience a critical virtue for inner leaders.

Altruism

Trust is, in part at least, a present from one person to another. Inner leaders trust others because they care or out of a desire to help others. Leaders give their trust to others. It cannot be taken. And leaders can withdraw it also on their decision, not that of the other persons. Bestowing trust is a volitional act, not a constrained one. It is a gift, an act of service, an endowment, an offering even.

Vulnerability

Trust consists of (1) action that increases the inner leader's vulnerability to another, (2) whose behavior is under his or her control, and (3) in situations where the penalty the leader suffers if the follower abuses his or her vulnerability is greater than the benefit the leader might gain if the followers does not abuse that vulnerability. Trusting others is a risk relationship, and the risk increases as inner leaders increase their level and scope of trust in other persons or things.

Action

Inner leaders build trust or tear it down by the cumulative actions they take and the words they speak. And their trust of others is based on the developing record of authenticated interaction built up in their relations with followers.

Building trust is an active process, not a passive one. Actions more than reputation ensure both leaders' trustworthiness and their willingness to trust others.

Friendship

Friendship is a composite of relationships such as shared values and experiences, compatibility, pleasure in associations with another person and comfort in his or her company. These and similar feelings contribute to the presence of trust and its depth and scope. Logic, as well as anecdotal evidence, confirms that friends trust each other more than enemies do. Rogers suggest that friendship relations contribute to the helping relationship that is founded in large part on mutual trust. Trusting leaders find friends among their coworkers and base their relationships, at least in part, on friendship.

Personal Competence

Trusting leaders place confidence in their followers' abilities, expertise, and skills. They have confidence in their followers' competence to work with them and one another. Inner leaders value their followers' overall sense of the task and their common sense, expertise, experiences, and inventiveness.

Judgment

The followers' capacity to make decisions that are perceived to be right, correct, and appropriate by inner leaders increases their trust quotient with them. Sound ethical and moral professional judgment is affected by a wide variety of factors, only some of which the leader can impact. The following is illustrative of the kinds of concerns making up the inner leader's action agenda in helping followers become worthy of trust: ethical decisions, personal self-interest, work-community goals, friendships, the norms of the larger society, personal morality, and applicable laws, rules, and regulations (Sims).

Discussion Issues And Questions

Issues

1. Leadership is a process of building a harmonious cultural surround within which leader and led trust each other enough to link efforts in achieving mutually valued goals using agreed-upon processes.

2. Effective inner leadership can take place only within a context where both leaders and followers can be free to trust the purposes, actions, and intent of others.

3. Shaping such a culture lets inner leaders create a mental and physical context within which they can in fact lead.

4. We can define trust as reliance on the integrity or authenticity of others. It is a logical, thoughtful hope in their reality, their authenticity, and their truth.

5. Trust places obligations on both the truster and the person trusted.

6. Trust is a risk relationship, but a necessary one. When we trust another person, we agree to accept as true what we can now only assume is true.

7. Leaders cannot demand trust of another or in themselves. It must be earned and developed, and it takes time.

8. Inner leaders communicate their trustworthiness as they are open about themselves and others.

9. When followers have a perception that their leaders authentically care for them, see them as open, and feel that they are personally interested in them, they are inclined to trust them.

10. Developing trustworthiness is difficult. Developing a capacity to trust others is equally difficult.

11. Inner leaders come to trust those whom they think have moral character.

12. While inner leaders may volunteer their trust on first meeting, a fully trusting relationship has to mature out of the matrix of shared experiences.

13. Trust is, in part at least, a gift from one person to another.

14. The followers' capacity to make decisions that are perceived to be right, correct, and appropriate by inner leaders increases their trust quotient with them.

Questions

1. Do I really grasp the power of trust to keep relationships and work communities together?

2. How is trust important in keeping my work unit together? Compare it with other factors like formal communications systems, fear, and the like.

3. Am I trustworthy?

4. Am I a willing to trust others?

5. Am I willing to take the risk to let others take control of the work because I trust the intentions and talents of my coworkers?

6. Do I really grasp the power of trust to keep relationships and work communities together?

7. Is trust the glue that keeps my work unit together, or is some other concept at work (i.e., fear, transactional exchanges, etc.). Elaborate on this idea.

8. Do I trust my coworkers enough to let them follow simple guidelines rather than strict and detailed rules?

Trust Leadership Learning Activities

Activity 1: Current Status - A Feedback Activity on Trust

Instructions. The Trust Status Inventory allows you to examine your current feelings toward other work community members. Completing this inventory lets you examine unexpressed feelings of trust or distrust within your ongoing work community and to clarify the reasons for these feelings. It may also help you increase your own feelings of trust within the community and promote self-disclosure and risk taking. Assessing these feelings can provide a basis for subsequent assessment of your trust levels in any work community.

1. Complete all the following questions. You may want to share with colleagues any of your answers after completing this inventory.

   Trust Status Inventory

   Name: _________________________________ Date _________________

   1. How did you feel as you joined this work community?

   2. How do you feel right now?

   3. Which person in this work community do you feel the most positive about right now? Describe what makes you feel good about that person.

   4. Toward whom in this work community do you react most negatively right now? Describe what that person does that produces this negative feeling.

   5. What prevents you from being more open and honest in this work community?

   6. Which person in this work community do you perceive as feeling the most positive toward you right now? Why do you feel that this person feels positive about you?

   7. Which person in this work community do you perceive as feeling the most negative about you right now? Why do you feel that this person experiences negative feelings toward you?

Note: You may begin by answering questions 3 and 6 to identify behaviors that contribute to feelings of trust. Questions 4, 5, and 7 may be examined subsequently to identify behaviors associated with distrust.

2. Rate each of your work community members on a 5-point scale according to how much trust you feel toward him or her. Use "1" to indicate "very little" and "5" to indicate "very much."

   Name	Rating
   1. ___________________________________________	____________
   2. ___________________________________________	____________
   3. ___________________________________________	____________
   4. ___________________________________________	____________
   5. ___________________________________________	____________
   6. ___________________________________________	____________
   7. ___________________________________________	____________
   8. ___________________________________________	____________
   9. ___________________________________________	____________
   10. ___________________________________________	____________
   11. ___________________________________________	____________
   12. ___________________________________________	____________

   Total Score ____________

3. For those individuals to whom you have given low trust ratings, list several ways in which

   1. You can change your behavior to increase your feelings of trust toward them.

   2. They might behave to allow you to feel more trust toward them.

Note: You may begin by answering questions 3 and 6 to identify behaviors that contribute to feelings of trust. Questions 4, 5, and 7 may be examined subsequently to identify behaviors associated with distrust.

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Activity 2: Dimensions of Trust - A Symbolic Expression

Instructions. Although most individuals will acknowledge the need for trust in relationships, it is often difficult to relate the term to the feelings involved in the expression of trust. The following activity may help you internalize your own perceptions about what elements and feelings are involved in trust and explore these ideas thoroughly with others.

1. Using a variety of drawing materials, draw a picture that symbolically represents trust concepts as you perceive them. (Use any drawing materials easily available to make your drawing.)

2. Further, prepare some statement about your trust model.

3. Be expressive and creative in both your drawing and your statement so that what you indicate will aid both you and others you may share it with in understanding the dimensions of trust on which you are focusing.

Activity 3: Conditions That Lead to Conflict or Trust

Instructions. In this activity, you will be able to locate the conditions in any work community that help or hinder the free exercise of trust and identify those conditions that apply to your specific work community. By completing this activity, you should be able to assess the trust level in your work community and exercise greater intracommunity dedication to trust others and cooperate more fully in work-community work tasks.

Note: This activity is best done by the reader in conjunction with a small group of coworkers. Of course, it can be done alone, but consensus-building is hampered.

1. Make a list of all of the conditions in any work community that maximize creativity, individuality, and trust.

2. Make a list of all the conditions in any work community that minimize trust and maximize dependency.

3. Underline those statements in each of the above lists that describe conditions that presently exist in your own work community.

4. Analyze your two personalized lists.

   1. Identify the conditions contributing to conflict in your workplace.

   2. Identify those conditions in your work community essential to a trusting culture.

   3. List any insights into your own work (work community) you have gained.

Activity 4: Trust as an Indispensable Factor in Inner Leadership

Instructions. Both theory and practice confirms that trust is a necessary ingredient in any interpersonal relationship. It is therefore of vital interest to the student of leadership.

1. Read the following brief statement about current research about trust in organized work communities.

   The qualities that describe the cultural context within which leadership takes place are as significant as the personal qualities of the leader. The leadership context is a climate of mutual, cooperative interaction where leader and led are united on values terms and trust each other enough to risk self in participation in joint activity. In such cultures both leaders and followers can be free to work together because they trust the purposes, actions, and intent of others.

   Trust is central to inner leadership in work communities because followers are people who choose to follow leaders. No collaborative work can be done over time without some measure of interpersonal trust. The culture the leader creates produces a trust environment where the leader can be assured that certain actions will produce certain results. It may also constrain willingness to trust. A given culture may allow some to trust one group more or less than another; but without the constraints imposed by the ambient culture, nobody couldt exercise trust at all.

   We can define trust as reliance on the integrity, or authenticity, of a person or similar qualities or attributes of someone (or something) in the absence of absolute knowledge or proof. In essence, we base our trust on faith in another person.

   Nevertheless, in the final analysis, the information we use to base our trusting behaviors must eventually prove accurate, or we withdraw our trust. Trust becomes both an expectation and a personal obligation to be authentic, trustworthy, reliable, which is provable by ensuing experience.

   It may not be an overstatement to suggest that trust is the foundation upon which cooperative action between individuals and work communities, the firm, even the nation, is built. It is only when work-community members trust one another that we can say that leadership is a part of the work-community dynamic. You must consider the degree of interactive trust in your work community as you develop your leadership style. You must also spend time in creating the kind of harmonious culture that lets trust relationships develop and flourish because the specific features of the ambient culture conditions what you (all leaders) do and how you do it.

   Seen this way, your prime leader task is to create a culture supportive of your desired values. As your followers internalize these cultural values, they develop a devotion to the institution that cannot come in any other way. They come to trust your leadership, the vision, and the common tasks. The job is not simple. It is fraught with difficulty and pitfalls. Given this reality, your leadership role is to create and institutionalize value-laden cultural principles in the work community and then teach them to followers who then internalize them in their actions.

2. Identify and analyze the ideas contained in the above statement. List these key ideas.

3. Prepare a response to these ideas - either agreeing with all or some of them or disagreeing with them as important from a leadership point of view.

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