“Trust is not about charisma or friendship. Trust is based on delivery. My job was to come back and say, ‘Here are the results – good and bad – and what I’m going to do about it.” – Telstra CEO David Thodey
A Young Leader In Over His Head
When I was a young leader I found myself in-over-my-head at the technology firm where I was employed. The C-Suite executives were hoping to become overnight multi-millionaires during the dot.com boom of the late ’90s and had little patience for inexperience or incompetence, of which I had high amounts of both at the time.
I knew the one strength I had was communicating. In addition to personal experience, I had seen enough great speeches, locker room pep talks, moving sermons, and motivational speakers to at least have the ability to make a relational connection and win a room over. And that I did when I initially spoke with the executive team about where our business unit was headed. I left that meeting having gained their confidence in both myself and my strategic plan.
But that confidence was short-lived because of my lack of working knowledge of our industry. I did not have a great grasp on what we did or the products we offered. The success metrics outlined in the strategic plan made it so I had no place to hide. The data didn’t lie! As David Thodey said above, my charisma and friendships were no longer enough. The fact “I was a great guy” and gave a wonderful motivational talk no longer mattered. In fact, those talks got old real fast and I would see eye rolls and visible frustration from these grizzled, hard-nosed, seasoned leaders I spoke to.
A Hard Lesson Learned
My performance was sub-par and I would soon learn a hard leadership lesson that there is a significant difference between confidence given and trust earned.
As mentioned above, what would regain their confidence and ultimately earn trust would be my ability to deliver results. And that I was unable to do because I was in the wrong seat on the bus. Fortunately, I soon transferred to another area of the organization where I was best suited and had a very productive two-year additional run with the company.
My ability to “be a nice guy” and deliver a good speech resulted in short-term confidence. But for their confidence to have grown into trust, I needed to have delivered superior results, which I did not do.
CONFIDENCE —–> OPPORTUNITY + RESULTS = TRUST —-> EVEN MORE OPPORTUNITY
What I learned was confidence leads to opportunity. When people have confidence in you, they give you opportunity. Conversely, when people lack confidence in you, there will be no opportunity given and therefore, no results or trust will be forthcoming.
When you deliver quality results on the opportunities given, you will then earn trust. And when trust is earned, it allows you to have even more opportunity.
So to recap – Confidence leads to opportunity. Delivering results on the opportunity given results in trust. Trust then allows you to have even more opportunity to deliver results and earn trust. And so on and so on and so on.
But for young leaders to earn trust, it always begins with delivering quality results.
Best Advice For Young Leaders
Many young leaders feel they have a sense of entitlement. We have mistakingly elevated potential, “fresh eyes”, and “new thoughts and perspectives” above proven production. In a very difficult leadership climate, I see this narrative changing. Quality results are needed now. Production is needed over potential. Confidence needs to turn into trust.
The best advice I have for today’s young leaders is do your job. Take that confidence given to you and produce quality results. And when you do, you will earn trust and be granted additional opportunity to produce even more results.
The Thodey quote originated from page 166 of CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders From The Rest. To order this amazing book click HERE.
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