A Heap of Leadership, Trust is Optional: An Opinion Column

I’ve done my time participating in numerous organizations on my campus, some of them I’ve even had the opportunity of taking on leadership positions and I’ve learned quite a bit. But one of the most important things I’ve learned about being a leader is, trust. Trust in every aspect. Trusting your members to execute their duties and to make sure the magic is still happening, trusting yourself to know that you can and will make the best decisions possible, and especially (and probably most importantly) having your members trust you to effectively and efficiently lead them and your organization to greatness.

But what happens, when a member tells you that they don’t trust you? In fact, they’ve never trusted you. Undoubtedly, it’s a jab in the ribs (maybe heart), but can you still be effective? Will the organization still be in a safe place? Are you a real leader? From a lot of thinking of different scenarios and the little experience I have as a leader, I would say yes. Realistically, trust is something earned and built and if there isn’t any foundation to build trust (amongst other things) off of then obviously there won’t be any. But that can’t be taken personally. Unlike Pokemon, you can’t catch ‘em all. You have to work with what and who you have despite those who don’t “believe” in you as a leader, or person. They have their reasons and there’s nothing you can do about it, except carry on. Naturally, when humans hear they can’t be trusted, the “distruster” is automatically resented from the “distrustee.” The “distrustee” gets defensive and quite frankly, angry. What did I ever to do them? Well if they don’t trust me, I’m not going to trust them. You’re not one to talk, anyway. That’s perfectly fine. In fact, when something similar to this happened to me I went off. I cussed them out, told them off and just let them have it… in my head of course. But that can’t break you or make you give up. Learn from the experience and continue learning. Don’t be ignorant and believe that just because you’re leading a group of people, they’re going to put their whole faith and trust into you. For whatever reasons they may not trust you, don’t let that hinder you from doing your job and doing it well. If they’re not on board, that’s one less to worry about and it’s better to focus on a group of individuals who are there and trusting you to lead them in the right direction.

The truth of that matter is, folks–anyone in any leadership position, whether it’s in a campus organization, a board of something and even in the work-force, someone somewhere is not going to trust, like or even respect you. And that should be self-explanatory. You’re in charge of something, they don’t like your ways, they refuse to support you. Winston Churchill explained it best when he said, “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” That one member, who expressed they’ve never trusted you, probably never will and that’s okay. Learn from that experience and channel that into something more powerful and worthwhile. No pity parties, here.