Who Can A Leader Trust?

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/tomazl

After several years pastoring a church and now finishing my second year in school administration, I have learned a lot about people. These insights have come through trial and error, success stories and failures. If you’re a person who wants to serve your leader well, or if you’re a leader confused about who you can trust, I hope this blog post helps. Here are a few things I’ve learned:

Trust people who have the same vision as you. Not everyone is heading in the same direction as the leader. As a leader, you’re not looking for people who are loyal to you, but loyal to the vision.

Trust people whose ideas do not directly benefit themselves. This gives you a peek into a person’s heart, showing you a glimpse of their real motives. These type of people can’t be trusted to give sound advice without diluting it with alternate motives.

Trust people who are “Team” focused. When they speak of the future of the organization, do you hear them use “I” more than “we”? Do they genuinely care about what others think?

Trust people who display personal sacrifice. From people who perform the little jobs in church that no one else would volunteer for, to those in the school who put in extra hours at the classroom, volunteer to coach or sponsor, and buy overpriced chocolates in a club fundraiser; These are the people whose heart’s desire is to see the organization flourish. Rather than dream of greener pastures at a different organization, these are the ones who would rather be a part of the solution.

Don’t trust people who are gossipers. People who will talk to you about people will also talk to people about you. Find those people who will genuinely listen and are slow to speak. When they do speak, people take notice because he/she speaks with wisdom, not with a divisive and slanderous tongue.

Don’t trust people who are constantly pessimistic. An organization with not hope, has no future. Pessimistic people no longer hope for better days. They merely join the masses of critics and should become just that to you…another voice whose chatter gets drowned out among the other critics. Listen carefully to the positive, the hopeful, the optimistic.

What would you add to this list? Who are the people a leader should or should not trust?