One of the most important aspects to leadership is trust. I teach to students the concept of positional leadership and true leadership. A positional leader will only obtain what they ask for; a true leader will receive a lot more. The difference between a positional leader and a true leader is trust. A true leader has the trust of those they lead. This is in fact one of the questions that should be used to evaluate a leader’s ability to lead others. One of the greatest characteristics of trustworthiness is honesty. If someone lies to you, will you trust them? A debate that is often made on this subject is a thing called a “white lie”. What exactly is a white lie? How does it differ from any other lie? The best perspective to this is kind of simple, put yourself in the place, of the person, that is having the “white lie” told. Will you trust that individual again? A lie is the quickest way to destroy a relationship.
So how do you as a leader/manager respond to a question that has an answer that cannot be stated in a specific setting? Do you ignore it, or just omit it? Is omission a lie? Again, the best way to determine this is to place yourself in the position of the one that is “not” being given the information. For example, the teacher’s crisis that is occurring across America is a critical issue, and for some states extremely impactful. In Arizona, Governor Ducey, on April 12, 2018 made a proposal to potentially head off a teacher’s strike. Arizona teachers are the lowest paid in the country, according to some claims. According to US News, a study they recently published, states that Arizona teachers are 47th out of 50 states. The teacher’s in the state are looking for a 20% pay increase, as one of several “demands”. Governor Ducey’s proposal is to give the teacher’s only, a 9% increase in the current budget; followed by a 5% in the next year budget (2019), and 5% in the following year (2020). In Arizona, November of 2018 will be the next gubernatorial election. This could mean that Governor Ducey could potentially not even been in office to follow this proposal all the way through. Yet the Governor has not made any reference to this fact in any of his “public relation” relating to this proposal. Clearly, he is aware of this fact; so, one must ask, is this an omission, or a lie? Does it really matter? Are these actions a way to create trust?
If you have someone lie to you, are you more, or less apt to trust them? What is Governor Ducey and the state Legislature asking of the citizens of Arizona? Trust is the most important characteristics of leadership.