Leadership Truths: Building Trust and Credibility
In the first article about Leadership Truths, we laid a foundation based on starting with yourself. If you cannot lead yourself, you will not be able to lead others. It also set the stage for the next truth in leadership, building trust and having credibility. Leadership is about influence and effectiveness. Neither are possible without trust and credibility. Let’s look closer at both of these and how you can ensure you have strong footings in both.
Trust Is the Foundation
Every strong relationship, personal or professional, starts with trust. Leadership is no different. Trust is not automatic. It’s earned daily through consistency, honesty, and follow-through. You can be talented, persuasive, and driven, but without trust, your influence has limits. A team might follow your direction for a while, but not your vision. People will comply when they have to. They commit when they trust you.
Trust grows when people know where you stand and believe you’ll stand there tomorrow. It disappears when your actions shift with convenience or pressure.
Action Points
Keep your promises, even the small ones. They build your reputation brick by brick.
Communicate clearly when you cannot meet a commitment. Transparency protects trust.
Be steady. Your team should not have to guess who will show up today.
Credibility Comes from Ownership
Credibility is the practical side of trust. It’s earned by doing what you say you’ll do, and owning it when you don’t. A credible leader doesn’t hide from mistakes or shift blame. They step up, take responsibility, and correct the problem. That honesty builds more respect than pretending everything went right.
In one of the toughest store visits I ever had, a Store Manager acknowledged in front of their team, “I dropped the ball on this one.” No excuses. No blame. The team rallied in the next several days, fixed the issues, and moved forward. That one moment built a ton of credibility for the leader, and he only grew from there. His results improved, the store performed better in every way, and eventually, he became a District Manager a few years later. It was clearly a turning point for the entire team.
Action Points
Admit mistakes quickly and publicly. It signals integrity and confidence.
Take corrective action immediately. Accountability without action is just apology.
Model the behavior you expect. If you want your team to own results, start by owning yours.
Hypocrisy Kills Culture
Leaders who say one thing and do another lose their team faster than nearly any other action or behavior. Talking about teamwork but showing favoritism. Stressing accountability but avoiding your own. Expecting transparency but keeping information close. All of these break down trust, and force your team to be cautious and suspicious of your actions and motivations.
When actions don’t align with words, trust collapses. Teams begin to protect themselves instead of performing. The positive team oriented culture you seek erodes quietly, and soon, performance follows. Your culture becomes one of mistrust, mediocre results, and hesitation to act. Consistency between what you say and what you do builds credibility faster than any speech. People believe what they see more than what they hear.
Action Points
Audit your own consistency. Do your actions reinforce your values and vision?
Treat every team member with the same respect, regardless of title or personality fit.
Don’t promise what you don’t plan to deliver. Overpromising and underdelivering breeds distrust.
Trust Is a Two-Way Street
Many leaders talk about being trusted but forget that they must also trust their teams. Micromanagement is a loud declaration of mistrust. It says, “I don’t think you can do this without me.” When leaders hold too tight, they choke innovation, initiative, and creativity. The best teams grow when they feel trusted to act and empowered to own their work.
The goal isn’t to step back and disappear. It’s to give space and stay available. Guidance replaces control. Support replaces supervision.
Action Points
Delegate authority, not just tasks. Let your team make real decisions.
Set clear expectations and outcomes. Then step back and let them work.
Be available for help, but not intrusive in execution.
Accountability Builds Confidence
Accountability often gets a bad reputation because people associate it with discipline. Accountability is not a four-letter word. Real accountability, positive accountability, is empowering. It gives clarity, ownership, and purpose. Teams want to know where the bar is. They want to know how success is measured. Clear expectations build confidence because people understand what winning looks like. The best leaders connect accountability to care. They hold people to standards because they believe in them. It is not about control or power.
When accountability is paired with trust, performance grows exponentially.
Action Points
Set clear, measurable expectations. Vague goals create confusion.
Follow up consistently, not reactively. Accountability is ongoing, not occasional.
Celebrate progress and coach gaps. Both matter equally.
Words Inspire. Actions Convince.
What you say makes a difference. Words matters, especially in leadership. But your credibility doesn’t come from speeches, it comes from habits. We all love a good video of an inspiring commencement speech or locker room rally. Those are words. What really inspires people and those teams are the actions from the coach before and after the conversation. Teams remember what you do far longer than what you say.
Every leader has a moment when they realize that example outweighs instruction. You can talk about urgency, but if you miss your own deadlines, the message fades. You can discuss teamwork, but if you isolate yourself, the message breaks. ‘Modeling the behavior’ can easily become cliché and training jargon, but in reality it is essential to influence and making a difference. People want examples to follow. They want to see what good looks like. You have the opportunity each day to demonstrate that.
If your actions inspire, your words will carry weight. If your actions contradict your words, no message will land.
Action Points
Align your daily behavior with your stated priorities.
Don’t over communicate values, demonstrate them.
Ask yourself, “If my team followed my example exactly, would we succeed?”
Closing Thought: Influence Without Trust Doesn’t Last
Trust and credibility are the second truth of leadership. They are the bridge between who you are and how your team experiences you. Without trust, leadership becomes more about control than people. Without credibility, influence falls flat. With both, you build a foundation that can handle pressure, change, and challenge. Your team decides daily whether to trust you. That decision is shaped by your behavior, not your title or your words alone. Earn it, protect it, and strengthen it each day when connecting and working with your team. Trust makes leadership possible. Credibility makes brings it to life.
How do you build trust and credibility with your team? What are some recent examples?
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