ABSTRACT
In Chapter 4 I said that trust was one of the three factors that determined leadership effectiveness in organisations, alongside culture and values. Trust is the willingness to believe what someone says without requiring any proof; it is an essential element of social cohesion (how can we live alongside people if we don’t trust them?) and it is equally essential for effective leadership (how can we follow someone if we don’t trust them?). This is a topic that has attracted a significant amount of research and the consensus is pretty strong – trust is central to effective leadership, and trust in a leader depends on three key characteristics:
perceptions of the leader’s competence in their role
how well the leader treats other people (described as benevolence)
the leader’s integrity.
