ABSTRACT
Developing trust is a core competency of leaders, and service-based project leaders are no exception. Failures of project leadership are normally accompanied by a breakdown of trust. Trust is an emotionally charged topic and has various interpretations. Trust has many dimensions: trust of others, trust of self, integrity, competence, and communication. Project environmental characteristics create a mutual need for a fiduciary relationship between customers and project teams, sponsors and project leaders, and team members and leaders-and even between team members quickly. The challenge is that the project environment characteristics of temporariness, ambiguous hierarchies, changing work teams, and heterogeneity of team members hamper trust and create difficulties in developing group cohesiveness, coordination, and communication.1 For this fiduciary relationship to be legitimate, it must grow from mutual respect and a common understanding.
