Important words to contemplate as the UK enters another General Election, the 3rd in the last 5 years, Canada comes off a General Election with a minority government and the USA has an election next year.
Actually, trust & truth are two of the most important words in any relationship I think – be it political, organizational, friendship, romantic or familial. Trust & Truth are key for a leader to build to motivate people and bring them along on the journey.
Some thoughts on building Trust:
- Do what you say you’re going to do
- Notice, recognize, acknowledge the good in the other person
- Be consistent in your interaction with them
- Find common ground – in ideas, values, beliefs, vision, whatever and build on it
- Communicate openly, transparently, often
- Show vulnerability yourself
- Deal with conflict, differences, hurts or annoyances early to avoid resentment
- Balance the relationship with the task at hand
- Be honest – see next point
Some thoughts on Truth:
- It can be empirical when referencing facts and reality, such as data and substantiation
- It can be determined when 4 factors are present: congruent with our experience, internally congruent with itself, coherent with everything else we consider to be true and useful in organizing our thinking and practice1
- It can be subjective as in my truth (what’s authentic to me or my experience of something) might be different than your truth
- Best to state your experience, context and perspective when sharing your truth to bring people along in your thinking
- Be conscious of social media, cameras and recordings as they can capture ‘truth’ or be edited to alter ‘truth’
What would you need to hear and see from politicians to trust them?
1 As Bill Meacham emailed into https://philosophynow.org/issues/86/What_Is_Truth
