Trust is essential to being a leader, because trust is the foundation of leadership. People want to follow a person that is visionary and has a detailed plan and overall goal for success. Trust between leaders and followers goes two ways because it’s important that both feel as though they can lean on the other for support and encouragement throughout a journey. From my perspective there are two main areas of trust: trusting yourself and trusting others.

Self trust can be based on the saying “you have to love yourself first before you can love others” because in a way you have to trust yourself before you can fully put trust in other people. When it comes to yourself, only you are the one making the decision to trust you. You can be influenced by others but the bottom line is you’re the one calling the shots and who ultimately decides what to do. Healthy self-trust is like having an internal GPS: you know where to go next, you trust your decisions both big and small, and you're willing to take risks. You won't fear failure or making mistakes because your sense of self isn’t dependent upon external factors. Self trust requires you to be a leader for yourself.

The other area is trust in others and relationships. This type of trust goes for friendships, family member or romantic relationships, and leaders. Trust is the faith you have in someone that they will always remain loyal to you and love you. To trust someone means that you can rely on them and are comfortable confiding in them. It’s the building block for any relationship, and you can’t really sustain a solid relationship without it. Lack of trust is a main reason relationships fall apart because it’s crucial to trust and equally be trusted in return. This requires mutual effort and commitment. Specifically as a leader, trust is essential. Leaders who inspire trust receive better morale, retention, innovation, and loyalty, while mistrust leads to skepticism, frustration, and low productivity. Trust affects a leader’s efficiency and impact greatly, so in order to be successful you must gain this first from your followers.

Trust results in thriving relationships with others and yourself. When you have healthy self trust you are much more confident in your decision making and feel in control of your actions. Trust with others means that you have faith in other people to support and love you, as long as you are equally making an effort to them. Trust is the foundation of leadership and without faith in a leader’s vision and plan, it cannot be successful.