Leadership is getting results in a way that inspires trust (part 2)
A common sense framework for building and extending trust
A. The 4 Cs of Building Trust model
On June 14, 2023, I had the honor to give the Commencement Address at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health 2024 graduation. I spoke about building community trust in public health using the 4 Cs of Building Trust (Figure 1).
Although the critical importance of trust is mentioned often, trust is rarely defined. Before jumping into the model, here are a few key definitions.
“Trust is the willingness of a party [trustor] to be vulnerable to the actions of another party [trustee] based on the expectation that the other party will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party. … Making oneself vulnerable is taking a risk. Trust is not taking a risk per se, but rather it is a willingness to take risk.”1
In short, trust is the willingness to be vulnerable to another party. Therefore, trust is a state of readiness to take risk in a relationship. Trust—the noun—is the willingness to assume risk; trust—the verb—is the assuming of risk. Our focus is on trust as a psychological and emotional state of readiness (“willingness”). An organizational culture of trust is a culture where staff feel safe to tackle and debate vigorously the most challenging, sensitive topics in service of the organizational purpose.
The 4 Cs of Building Trust model consists of three components: (1) trustor attributes with 4 key questions (Can I believe you?, …), (2) trustee attributes (The 4 Cs of Building Trust), and (3) relationship attributes (power, …). This model was inspired and influenced by the work of trust research2 pioneer Professor Roger C. Mayer, and authors Stephen MR Covey and Charles Feltman.3
I anchor this model to Stephen MR Covey’s definition of leadership:
“Leadership is getting results in a way that inspires trust.”4
While there are many definitions of leadership,5 this is one of my favorites because it’s easy to remember and easy to operationalize.
Leadership
is getting (inputs and processes)
results (outputs, outcomes, and impacts)
in a way (observable behaviors that model “who you/we are”)
that inspires (“connecting to why” = vision, purpose, mission, goal)
trust (culture that is safe to take risks, learn, improve, and innovate).
In this article I review the 4 Cs of Building Trust model in more detail. The model provides a framework for diagnosing trust problems, for building trust, and for extending trust. I also cover a shortcut method for building trust rapidly.
B. Key takeaways
Both trust and trustworthiness are inherent in all relationships, but rarely defined precisely. Trust is a psychological and emotional state of the trustor (think of a community resident). Trust is the willingness to be vulnerable to the actions of another party (trustee; eg, think of governmental public health). More specifically, trust is a choice, mostly intuitive, but sometimes deliberative. The trustor (community) asks four questions of the trustee (public health):
Can I believe you?
Do you care about me?
Can you deliver?
Can I count on you?
These questions are implicit; ie, below the conscious awareness of the trustor.
The trustor’s willingness to extend trust (ie, risk vulnerability) is determined by their
propensity to trust or distrust,
perception of the risks and benefits to them of extending trust, and
appraisal of the trustworthiness of the trustee.
Trustworthiness are attributes of the trustee that drive their reasoning, thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that may directly or indirectly impact the trustor and the trustor’s willingness to extend trust. The trustee’s trustworthiness is determined by evidence of their character, caring, competence, and consistency.
Now, think about yourself from the dual perspective of being a trustee and a trustor.
You as a trustee: to build trust,
be trustworthy (4 Cs of Building Trust)
have Character
be Caring
be Competent
be Consistent (and reliable)
use a human-centered approach to assess the needs of the trustor’s
propensity to trust or distrust,
perception of the risks and benefits, and
appraisal of your trustworthiness; and
act in ways that inspire trust, and
promote a culture of trust
CAUTION: Being trustworthy is necessary but not sufficient to build trust.
You as a trustor: to extend trust, options include
assuming good intent, and then adapting based on what you learn;
assessing your own
propensity to trust or distrust,
perception of the risks and benefits to you of extending trust, and
appraisal of the trustworthiness of the trustee; or
communicating clearly what you need to have trust and confidence in the trustee.
In the sections below I go into more depth. Based on my experience, I list the key elements for building and extending trust, but I do not go into detail with every element. The elements are my “short list.” Please add, subtract, and adapt my lists. Send me feedback.
C. Building trust (trustee)
To build trust with the trustor (eg, community), be trustworthy using the 4 Cs of Building Trust. Use a human-centered approach that focuses on understanding the perspectives and needs of the trustor.
1. Have Character (“Can I believe you?”)
Of the 4 C’s, character is the most important! Character is about having a strong moral compass to guide your reasoning and behaviors, but also respecting the diversity of moral values and their trade-offs. In public health policymaking, we use public health ethics to deliberate these trade-offs.
Wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance (Stoic virtues)
General humility and cultural humility
Moral compass and ethical behavior
Sincerity, honesty, and loyalty
Accountability
Transparency
Integrity
Stoicism (or Stoic philosophy) is an engaging way to learn and focus on your character development. Stoicism holds that the ultimate good is living a life of virtue, which encompasses practical wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance (eg, moderation and self-discipline). I recommend books by British clinical psychologist Donald Robertson who writes about ancient Greek and Roman Stoic philosophy with vivid stories that invite self-reflection on how to improve your character.6
To this end, Stoicism promotes human reasoning, self-awareness, mindfulness, perspective taking, seeking accurate feedback, pursuing evidence, and exercising agency to focus our cognitive and emotional efforts on what we can change and improve — and it always starts with us!
While you cannot control everything that happens to you, you can always control how you reason, prepare, and respond.
Stoicism was so practical for the daily challenges the ancients faced that it inspired the pioneers who developed the modern field of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or CBT.7
For building trust, good character is the most important. Daily challenges and doses of adversity provide us the opportunity to be humble, and to test and strengthen our character.
Humility is deep topic with many dimensions. “Humility is the noble choice to forgo your status and to use your influence for the good of others before yourself.” In other words, “Humility is to hold power in service of others.”8 The more power one holds, the more positive is the impact of humility.
In 1998, Melanie Tervalon and Jann Murray-García published a groundbreaking article9 that challenged the concept of “cultural competency” with the concept of “cultural humility.” Cultural humility is committing to lifelong learning, critical self-reflection, and personal and institutional transformation. Accepting cultural humility means accepting that we can never be fully culturally competent. Cultural humility is the foundation for establishing trust and respectful relationships, and for managing differences and conflict. Cultural humility means
committing to lifelong learning and critical self-reflection;
realizing our power, privilege,10 and prejudices (biases);
redressing power imbalances for respectful partnerships; and
promoting institutional accountability.
Accountability is a misunderstood concept. The Center for Creative Leadership defines accountability:
Whereas responsibility is generally delegated by the boss, the organization, or by virtue of position, accountability is having an intrinsic sense of ownership of the task and the willingness to face the consequences that come with success or failure.
Furthermore, accountable people “look out the window to apportion credit . . . when things go well, [and] they look in the mirror to apportion responsibility . . . when things go poorly.”11 In other words, when failures occur, actively seek full responsibility for anything we could have influenced — we do not seek blame or look to “hold someone accountable” — we problem-solve and ask “how can I (or we) make things better?” Then, we can seek to improve the processes and systems that support self-accountability (including for teams) in a way that inspires trust.
Accountability is owning your influence and responsibility.
2. Be Caring (“Do you care about me?“)
Here is my approach to practicing benevolence.
Embody and promote Universal Values
Be kind and compassionate
Promote equity and dignity
Promote inclusion and belonging
Be trauma-informed, responsive, and preventive
Ensure physical and psychological safety
Be curious, not judgmental — use humble inquiry
Universal values are values that apply to everyone, everywhere, leaving no one behind, including your adversaries. Examples of universal values include dignity, equity/fairness, compassion, and belonging. Dr. Monica Sharma, former Director of Leadership Development at the United Nations, discovered that promoting the universal values of dignity, equity, and compassion enabled field teams to tackle difficult public health problems in all corners of the world.12
Embody and promote universal values in every conversation and in every interaction. With universal values,
we can connect with others through our shared humanity,
we can transcend differences to find common ground, and
we can co-create to solve problems together.
Promoting universal values and cultivating humility work together to activate a mindset for authentic caring and connection.
3. Be competent (“Can you deliver?“)
When we board an airplane or consent for a surgical procedure we expect—and demand—high technical competence of the pilot and surgeon! What we expect of them we should expect of ourselves. These following components are the essential for continuous competency improvement.
Intellectual humility
Growth mindset
Four Stages of Competence (Figure 2)
Unconscious incompetence (“Ignorance is bliss.”)
Conscious incompetence (aware, insecure, anxious, stressful)
Conscious competence (effortful but learning)
Unconscious competence (mastery, effortless)
Networked Talent Model (Figure 3)
Intellectual humility is recognizing and owning your intellectual limitations in service of pursuing deeper knowledge, truth, and understanding through curiosity and inquiry.13 Intellectual humility generates and amplifies the growth mindset.14
What is a growth mindset?15
“To briefly sum up the findings: Individuals who believe their talents can be developed (through hard work, good strategies, and input from others) have a growth mindset. They tend to achieve more than those with a more fixed mindset (those who believe their talents are innate gifts). This is because they worry less about looking smart and put more energy into learning.”
The Four Stages of Competence1617 are critical to understanding how we learn and how we support how others to learn and grow (Figure 2). On the learning journey, Stage 2 (conscious incompetence) can be very stressful and can result in avoidance, resistance, quitting — and even chronic stress. We might get or feel stuck here because of the expectations we or others have of our performance. Stage 4 masters, not remembering when they were newbies, can unintentionally pile on the stress on Stage 2 learners. Stage 4 masters, smug in their effortless expertise, might be ignorant of their incompetencies in other domains. The solution is to always stay humble, patient, and compassionate of ourselves and others.!
The Networked Talent Model summarizes four competency domains that are essential to short and long-term career success. Formal education, training, and practice is a key path to occupational mastery. Management is getting things done. Leadership is leading change by inspiring and influencing others to commit, align, and act towards a shared goal or mission. Management tasks can be delegated. Leadership is about relationships and it cannot be delegated. Team skills are the interpersonal skills necessary to be an effective team member and leader.
4. Be consistent (and reliable) (“Can I count on you?“)
As you climb the career ladder, you become very busy, and this becomes a blind spot.
Be consistent by reducing uncertainty
improve your “batting average” (percent successful)
reduce undesired variability (ie, don’t be erratic)
Be reliable (100%) for all commitments and promises
fulfill commitments
keep promises
The Shortcut Method to building trust
This practical and effective technique is from Professor Robert F. Hurley. Here is the excerpt from his book18 that inspired me to deploy it successfully. The bolded text was added for emphasis.
… young executive named Pat was confronted early in her career with a supervisor who seemed to trust no one but himself. This supervisor was a source of frustration for Pat and all her peers. Some resented him and badmouthed him behind his back. Among all of them, only Pat resolved to do something about the situation.
Her first step was to ask the supervisor, Bill, for some time on his calendar when she knew he would be less stressed. At their meeting, after a few moments of small talk, Pat opened up a line of inquiry in a nonthreatening way: “Earning your trust and confidence is important to me,” she told him. “I'd like to hear from you what I can do to increase your confidence in me.” Bill seemed a bit surprised and replied that he had total trust in her already. “Thanks,” she said, and then she probed further. “… How can I change the way I do things to make it easier for you to let me take on more and feel comfortable with doing that?” She and Bill came to an agreement: Pat would take on more responsibilities, but she would also make a concerted effort to keep Bill well informed enough that he was comfortable in giving up a measure of control.
D. Extending trust (trustor)
Extending trust is deciding to risk vulnerability with another party (trustee). Here are some options to try.
Set a default (eg, "assume good intent") and test your assumptions.
Evaluate your
propensity to trust or distrust,
perception of of the risks and benefits to you, and
appraisal of trustee's trustworthiness,
Reciprocate with the “shortcut method” to building trust
Say the following: "I want us to strengthen our trust and confidence in each other.
Here's what I need from you: 1, 2, 3, ... (Be honest.)
What do you need from me?" (The more specific, the better.)
Model the trust you expect of others
be trustworthy,
behave in ways that inspire trust, and
design systems that promote a culture of trust.
E. Relationship history and dynamics
Trust in a relationship depends on the history and dynamics of the relationships. Four factors play an important role.
Power
Closeness
Uncertainty
Conflict
Power is the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others, the course of events, or the allocation of resources. Power comes from positional, moral, or relational authority. Authority is granted by appointment or earned by trust and credibility. Power can be exercised by embodying humility and promoting universal values, or by persuasion, manipulation, or deceit. The dynamics and impacts of power are multi-dimensional, context dependent, cumulative, and can be subtle. For example, the mere presence of a boss can unintentionally shut down subordinates.
Conflict can be healthy or destructive (“high conflict”). Amanda Ripley, journalist and author of “High Conflict—Why we get trapped and how we get out,”19 reminds us that any one of us can be swept up into conflicts that can spiral into self-perpetuating, all-consuming states of distrust, polarization, dehumanization, and harm.
In a recent podcast20 she shared her mindset for interviewing people whose beliefs and values clash with hers. Recognizing the potential for high conflict, she said,
“I'm not interested in resolving it. I’m also not interested in avoiding it, ... My goal, as a journalist and as a human, is if I can do one of three things: Can I, myself, understand the other person, the problem, or myself a little better through this encounter?”
She chooses to engage by listening and learning, not debating or persuading. People who feel heard are more likely to listen back. She creates space for dialog and building trust.
Summary
To summarize, “Leadership is getting results in a way that inspires trust.”
Embracing the 4 Cs of Building Trust provides a systematic approach to building and rebuilding trust. It will accelerate your learning, growth, and effectiveness in your personal and professional life.
Appendix - Figure 1 in dark mode
Footnotes
Kramer, Roderick Moreland, ed. Organizational Trust: A Reader. Oxford Management Readers. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Mayer, Roger C., and Barbara M. Mayer, eds. A Research Agenda for Trust: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Elgar Research Agendas. Cheltenham, UK ; Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024.
Feltman, Charles. The Thin Book of Trust: An Essential Primer for Building Trust at Work. Second edition. Bend, OR: Thin Book Publishing Co, 2021.
Covey, Stephen M. R., and Rebecca R. Merrill. The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything. Paperback ed. New York: Free Press, 2008.
See some definitions of leadership here: https://northwest.education/insights/career-growth/7-leadership-definitions-insights-impact-2023/
Robertson, Donald. How to Think like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius. First St. Martin’s Griffin edition. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2020. Absolutely amazing book! Start here. Donald Robertson is a clinical psychologist and he introduces Stoicism using concepts from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Promoting Stoic philosophy is a non-religious way to promote character development through storytelling. Robertson focuses on introducing CBT-validated, evidence-based strategies.
Robertson, Donald. The Philosophy of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT): Stoic Philosophy as Rational and Cognitive Psychotherapy. Second edition. Abingdon, Oxon New York, NY: Routledge, 2020.
John Dickson (2011). WCA Summit Sunday - John Dickson - Humilitas (YouTube). This is an inspiring talk on humility.
Tervalon, M., and J. Murray-García. “Cultural Humility versus Cultural Competence: A Critical Distinction in Defining Physician Training Outcomes in Multicultural Education.” Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 9, no. 2 (May 1998): 117–25. https://doi.org/10.1353/hpu.2010.0233.
Privilege is a form of unearned power that comes from social advantage. All of us have some form of privilege. Privilege exists because of cultural norms and sociopolitical systems that generate and reinforce power inequities. For example, in the US, if one is male, heterosexual, cisgender, or has lighter skin color, then one has more privilege. We do not choose privilege, but we can acknowledge it. One can make “the noble choice to forgo your status and to use your influence for the good of others before yourself” — this is humility.
Jim Collins. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... And Others Don’t. Harper Business, 2001.
Monica Sharma (2017). Radical Transformational Leadership: Strategic Action for Change Agents (book) and (website).
Carol Dweck. “What Having a ‘Growth Mindset’ Actually Means.” Harvard Business Review, January 13, 2016. https://hbr.org/2016/01/what-having-a-growth-mindset-actually-means.
Definition adapted from Intellectual Humility (webpage).
Robert F. Hurley. The Decision to Trust: How Leaders Create High-Trust Organizations. Jossey-Bass, 2011.
Amanda Ripley. High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out. Simon & Schuster, 2022.
The Atlantic Podcast (2023), featuring Amanda Ripley. How to Have a Healthy Argument (YouTube).