Why Trust Is Essential for Stability

Trust happens when three conditions are met: mutual vulnerability, fulfilled expectations, and freedom.

Vulnerability may be the hardest experience for us to welcome into our lives as leaders. First clarification: vulnerable doesn’t mean weak; it means open: open to what other people think, open about our mistakes, and, most important, open to what we don’t know. To be a leader, we think, is to be in control. We cannot control the weather, changes in the global economy, or even what our people do. At the same time, our teams and our organizations are in our hands. What we can control is the environment we establish and whether it produces a culture where people want to work together. When mutual vulnerability is achieved, when both parties know they need each other and we value that need as leaders, trust begins.