Introduction
Over the years, leadership has shaped its path to be highly desired and valued. Leadership is mainly characterized by influencing others toward attaining a common goal. It comprises many components that work together to ensure the goal is achieved. To make progress without having doubts within a team, one element is needed, and that is trust.
Trust and Leadership
Trust is a psychological and emotional aspect in human beings that can vary in intensity and has direction, strength, and duration; it defines relationships. Trust, as a critical element in the entity’s success, is established mainly through the leader’s strategies, plans, and actions. People trust their leader and are more likely to follow depending on their attachment. Trust makes followers willingly vulnerable to leaders they have previously experienced as competent, honest, and genuine. It enables leaders to build strong teams and leaders can understand their followers’ perspectives and needs. However, building trust takes work, meaning it establishes itself gradually.
Traits
Certain traits could be used to distinguish leaders from non-leaders. Leadership involves a collection of positive traits, such that people who do not have the requisite skills cannot be described as true leaders. The trust between the leader and followers is vital in predicting their working relationship. In such an environment, the followers will feel that their ideas, thoughts, and inputs are essential and can be considered. The followers’ perception of the trustworthiness of their leader will be influenced by, among others, their honesty, empathy, sharing of control, integrity, and timeous and precise communication. In particular, integrity helps to inspire confidence in others because of the trust that the leader will do as started. This will make the leaders show loyalty, be dependable, and not be deceptive.
Leadership Styles
Authentic leadership requires a high level of follower trust that can be cultivated through transparency and support. Authentic leadership is described as a leader who is genuine, ethical, and transparent. Transformational leadership requires trust in working together since the leader has to define their position and stand by it. Therefore, trust requires high reliability and predictability, even in uncertain situations. Ethical leadership also requires a high level of trust based on the perception that the leaders may have to act more morally and ethically. Followers will develop mutual trust with leaders who behave and act ethically towards them, which will help to build a robust leader-follower association.
Perspectives
Trust can be viewed differently among different parties based on different perspectives and influences. Some followers can relate their trust to the excellent performance of an activity. The leadership style also significantly influences the level of trust, making it essential in leadership. At a personal level, most people manifest trust through task autonomy. This is the degree to which followers are free, have discretion, are independent, have the right of self-government, and are accountable for executing their operationally defined tasks and duties according to schedule.
When people trust their leaders, they are more likely to follow them, be motivated by them, and be willing to take risks for them. Trust also enables leaders to build strong teams, as team members are more likely to trust one another when they trust their leader. Trust can also help leaders understand their followers’ perspectives and needs, which can, in turn, help them make better decisions and communicate more effectively. In general, trust is an essential part of the leader-follower relationship, and it is something that must be continuously nurtured and maintained.
Importance of Teaching Trust
It has been established that trust is a critical component of leadership that has to be taught. It gives followers confidence in the leader’s abilities, decisions, and intentions. Without trust, followers may question the leader’s motives and lack commitment to the leader’s vision. Building trust involves being transparent, consistent, and reliable, as well as having a strong ethical foundation. Trust is grounded on effective communication and the ability to build relationships. When trust is present, leaders are more likely to have a motivated and engaged team, leading to improved productivity and better overall performance. In addition, trust can also help build a culture of open communication, innovation, and creativity.
Learning Plan
The steps in the learning plan start with developing a clear understanding of trust and the components involved in building trust, such as integrity, consistency, ethical conduct, honesty, and transparency. The material will be created through detailed research to gather different resources needed in teaching. It will be followed by developing a curriculum to cover the critical concepts of trust-building in leadership. Teaching will be augmented through coaching and creating room for feedback as learners practice trust-building skills. The curriculum will be updated continuously based on new research and information. Finally, learners will be provided with resources and support to enhance learning on the topic, such as mentorship or networking opportunities. Learners will also be assessed to evaluate their understanding and progress.
Intended Learning Outcomes
Teaching trust in leadership is expected to enable learners to understand how to create a culture of trust in leadership based on the principles of trust-building. The learners should be able to reflect on the leadership styles and identify areas of building trust. They are expected to learn how to overcome common obstacles to trust-building in leadership and cultivate the ability to practice trust-building skills in real-world scenarios. They should also appreciate the role of feedback, self-reflection, and coaching in building trust in leadership.
Learning Strategies
Learners can better understand the topic and meet the outcomes if the sessions remain interactive and promote active learning. Role-playing exercises help learners to practice and develop trust-building skills. Case studies help to evaluate real-life examples of trust-building in leadership to provide valuable insights and help individuals understand the importance of trust in leadership. Team-building activities stimulate collaboration and communication in the teaching session. Finally, learners can be encouraged to reflect on their experiences and behaviors regarding trust in leadership, which will help specify improvement areas.
Means of Assessing Progress
Assessing progress when teaching trust in leadership can be challenging as it is an intricate and multi-faceted concept. Exercises can be used to assess progress in teaching trust in leadership. The exercises can range from simple tasks to more complex workouts, such as high-wire team-building activities. Learners can be allowed to collect primary data on trust in leadership through surveys and questionnaires. The approach will provide feedback from individuals or groups on their level of trust in a leader or leadership team. Learners can also be assessed on their understanding of the topic through observation and interviewing to have a deeper understanding of the value of trust in leadership.
Conclusion
Performance and assessment measures can be developed to gauge the level of understanding of the topic among learners. Self-reflection is also a key component in helping learners to reflect on their actions and conduct and how they can contribute to building or undermining trust in a leadership context.
References
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Malik, M., Mahmood, F., Sarwar, N., Obaid, A., Memon, M. A., & Khaskheli, A. (2022). Ethical leadership: Exploring bottom-line mentality and trust perceptions of employees on middle-level managers. Current Psychology. Web.
Northouse, P. (2019). Leadership: Theory and practice (8th ed.). Sage Publications.
Oppi, P., & Eisenschmidt, E. (2022). Developing a professional learning community through teacher leadership: A case in one Estonian school. Teaching and Teacher Education: Leadership and Professional Development, 100011. Web.