Tag Archives: Trustworthiness

True Leaders Are Hardly Known

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In the spirit of servant leadership comes a beautiful vision of leadership from author Ursula K. Le Guin.

She was a favorite author of mine as a child.  Her Earthsea books kept me up late at night dreaming of discovering magic for myself.  I continue to look.

Ursula K. Le Guin wrote on many topics including Taoist scripture.  She wrote her own rendering of the Tao Te Ching.   One may view this ancient writing as the oldest known on what we call leadership.

Maybe this vision is an ideal … maybe it is naive in today’s world.

I choose to smile, nod my head, and understand as I read it.  It speaks to me.  Leadership is influence.  Nothing says that influence needs to be recognized.

True leaders are hardly known to their followers.

Next best are leaders who are loved.

Next those who are feared.

And the worst are those they despise.

To give no trust.

Is to get no trust.

When the work is done well,

The people say:

We did it ourselves.

Trustworthiness: Easy as Pie

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There are two kinds of people, eaters and bakers.  More on that later…

Recently I started using Google+ as an alternative to Facebook.  So far I love it and I invite you to check it out too.  As I am learning how to use Google+ I found an on-line introduction book written by Guy Kawasaki.  He is a writer and long-term tech guru type.  He wrote a chapter on “How to Achieve Trustworthiness” to help with writing good posts and commenting  on other people’s posts.  His list is terrific for all of us involved with social media through our own writing and how we interact and comment with others.

What struck me though is that his rules of the road are not unique to blogging and social media interaction.  These rules are important for all of us even if we never turn on a computer.  As a leader these items are more critical.  Trustworthiness is a cornerstone of leadership.  Leadership is a process of influence and how can you pull folks forward if they do not trust you?

Guy’s writing is creative and fun.  His list, while not directly written for leadership development, does indeed serve that purpose.  I paraphrase his words to position them for leadership and not as he wrote them for using social media:

    • Show up: You get points in life for just showing up.  Do share and interact with others.
    • Make the community better: Try to help someone each day. Give without expectation of return.
    • Don’t be an orifice: Don’t attack others.  Stay positive. Stay uplifting. Or stay silent.
    • Keep it clean: Frequent profanity is the enemy of trustworthiness.
    • Trust others first: You trust, then you are trusted.
    • Disclose your interests: Watch the hidden agenda.
    • Gain knowledge and competence: People trust experts.  Don’t speak on what you do not know.
    • Resist bad means: Bad means to achieve good results is a slippery slope.
 
and then my favorite …
 
  • Bake a bigger pie: There are two kinds of people, eaters and bakers.  Eaters see the world as a zero-sum game and they eat more and leave little for others.  Bakers see the word differently and just bake more and bigger pies.  Everyone can eat more.  People trust bakers and not eaters.

Happy Friday and plan to bake your own pie and of course, share it with others.  No worries, plenty for everyone.