Be Trustworthy

You must be trustworthy to be a leader. When things are going really well, it is pretty easy to get people to follow, but when things get tough (and they inevitably do), they will only follow you if they really trust you.  Trust is something that is easy to earn but unfortunately even easier to lose. And regaining trust is pretty difficult (you don’t get to act like a teenager and sob and beg to be trusted and promise you will never ever ever ever break their trust again).

In order to be trusted, you must

·         Be Credible

·         Be Fair

·         Be Open

·         Mean what you say; say what you mean

Be Credible:  As a leader in software, you must be able to speak intelligently about the product you are working on, ask insightful questions about it, and make good decisions regarding it.  You do not need to be smarter than everyone, but you must know enough that the people following you believe you are a capable contributor; that you are adding value.  If you rely on your team for every decision, they begin to see you just as a gate keeper, paper pusher or meeting attender, and they no longer really trust you (or perhaps they never did).  You don’t need to be the expert in every subject but you do need to know enough to be conversant – read all of the design documents, play with the product, do research into competitors, look at the code – stretch yourself, embrace learning. It will pay off.

Be Fair:   The Merriam Webster definition of fair is “marked by impartiality and honesty; free from self-interest, prejudice, or favoritism”.  As a leader you must treat people fairly. That is not to say that you must treat people equally; but you should be prepared and able to defend any inequalities. There will be times when you give someone a promotion, or a special project or a bonus; and you should be able to explain to others why this one person was singled out.  When you treat people fairly, you are respected; when you treat people unfairly, the team will notice and will lose faith in you.

Be Open:  It is important to be open with your team. Telling the truth is very powerful. So explain how decisions are made; tell them when you disagree with a corporate decision but explain why you must follow nonetheless; tell them when you made a bad decision and why the current one is the right one; tell them when you don’t understand something, or let them know that a change may be coming before it impacts them. People generally dislike surprises, change, and edicts from on high. The more information they have the better; keep them in the loop.  Do not mistake being open and telling the truth for telling your team everything; there will be plenty of times where you do need to keep information confidential. But whenever you can, do communicate and be open with your team. They will appreciate it.

Mean what you say; say what you mean.  Expanding upon this could take an entire blog post, so I will only touch on the highlights regarding trust. Leaders need to:

• Keep commitments. If you set up a meeting, go to the meeting on time. If you say you will write an email, write it. If you say you will get back to someone to help with a problem, get back to them. Better to under commit than under deliver. If you meet your commitments, your team will learn they can rely on you. 
• Make people accountable.  Just as you must keep your commitments, you should hold your team accountable for their commitments.  If you ask for something to be done, you must make sure that your team did it. And if they did not, you need to address the issue. The team will know that when you ask for something, you really mean it. 
• Only ask for what you need:  If you ask for things and they are never used, people will begin to doubt you. So, make sure you only ask for that which you need, otherwise you will be viewed as someone who wastes others' time. 

I can't emphasize enough how important it is to keep your commitments. If you keep yours, your team is more likely to keep theirs.  You can't fake it. The only way to act "holier than thou" is actually to be "holier than thou". In this area, you really need to lead by example.

Being trustworthy is key to being a great leader. When your team trusts you, you will be able to lead them to complete seemingly impossible tasks. Do your best to earn and keep their trust.