Trust and Leadership
There are many different concepts of leadership and leadership models that have all attempted to embody the true nature of what it means to be a leader. However, leadership is a complex phenomenon that is not easily reducible. Some of the more popular theories that have emerged include leadership models such as trait theory, situational theory, transformational leadership, behavioral theory, competencies theory, network theory of leadership and many more (Turner & Muller, 2005). Many of these models have focused on the stereotypical leader that is strong and often a charismatic hero figure.
However, some emerging models place more emphasis on more progressive leadership ideas that can also be more feminine in nature. For example, the Servant Leadership Survey (SLS) is one such attempt that uses an eight dimensional measure that includes standing back, forgiveness, courage, empowerment, accountability, authenticity, humility, and stewardship (Van Dierrendonck & Nuijten, 2010). Humility and servitude are examples of leadership characteristics that have not previously been commonly associated with the traditional notions of leadership.
Trust in a leader is another component of leadership that is gaining momentum in the literature. There are two basic forms of trust. One is an...
Basically, you can trust or distrust someone on the basis of their personality or on their cognitive-based decisions.
Therefore, trust can also be related to other pro-social behaviors that include some of the factors mentioned previously such as accountability, authenticity, humility, and stewardship. Some have argued that prosocial motivation, which refers to "the desire to expend effort in order to benefit other people," as a boundary condition on the mediating effects of affect-based and cognition-based trust on the relationship between transformational leadership and followers' helping behavior (Zhu & Akhtar, 2014). The more a leader shows that they are willing to benefit the group, the more affect and cognitive-based trust they can build.
In my experience, this seems to be true of leaders in general. I have known some leaders who simply seem inauthentic in their group communications. They seem to have their own hidden agenda or at least not be telling the whole story. It can be very difficult to trust someone like this regardless of his or her…
