What Makes a Leader – Trust

Today is the third day of #AgriLeadershipWeek2024 and we trust that you’ll be ready for our latest word of the day. Trust in the workplace means knowing you can depend on one another, knowing that you’re pulling in the same direction, and knowing that your leader is on their side, treating you with both fairness and respect. 

“Purpose affirms trust, trust affirms purpose and together they forge individuals into a working team.” Coleman Ruiz, Navy SEAL 6. 

Trust is the basis of all successful workplaces and is a real representation of the core of leadership. 

Trust can be built by listening to one another. Too often we’re quick to speak, over-exert our ideas, or try to pursue things in the way we prefer. However, by stopping and listening, and sometimes acting on the other person’s ideas, that’s when the best relationships form, and often the best work takes place. 

Appreciation often leads to trust. When you appreciate that your colleagues – and leaders – will do what they need to when they need to, you begin to gain a sense of comfortability that you’d otherwise struggle to feel, and that’s when your best work can take place. 

A huge part of trust comes from accountability and consistency. As the old saying goes ‘the best ability is availability’ and if both you and your fellow employees know that you are accountable on a day-to-day basis and consistent in all forms of your work, trust will naturally blossom between you. 

Take a moment to reflect and think about why trust is important in the workplace, and perhaps see if there’s a step you can take to build upon the existing foundations of trust you’ve already formed. 

What does trust in the workplace mean to you? 

MDS has partnered with TIAH and others to bring Agri Leadership Week to fruition.