In an earlier post, I talked about the four components of trust: competence, transparency, predictability, and genuine concern. I'd like to get into a little more detail about each, and today, we'll focus on COMPETENCE.
Simply put, people won't trust a leader who is seen as less than competent to get the job done. I was reading The Speed of Trust by Stephen M. R. Covey, and he wrote about competence in a more personal level. He said while his wife has complete trust in him, she wouldn't trust him to perform surgery on her. This is for obvious reasons. He is not a surgeon, and he is not competent in surgery.
More than twenty years ago, I was hired to manage the Elections Division in Washington County, Oregon. I had never worked in Elections before. I had management experience in both the private and public sectors; in fact, I had been a public sector department head. That was the reason I was hired, my boss had told me. While I had no background in what the office did, he felt it was important to bring someone in who was an experienced manager. He even felt that having someone with no technical experience might just be the "breath of fresh air" the office needed.
Elections is a very highly technical field. It was much more technical than I could even imagine. It was overwhelming how much the office needed to know to make sure the job was done right, and I was grateful that I had a staff of experienced people who knew the business. God knows, I didn't know the business. And God knows, they knew I didn't know the business, and it was a very difficult management challenge. They didn't trust me because they didn't trust my competence. I didn't begin earning trust until I started gaining competence in what they did.
"Management just doesn't understand what I do!" Employees often don't trust their managers for just that reason. That's why they appreciate leaders who are willing to "get into the trenches" and "get their hands dirty". Further, trusting the competence of their managers means not just that their managers are willing to do the dirty work -- it is that their managers are even able to do the dirty work.
This doesn't mean that anyone who manages people needs to be able -- if needed -- to take over the work of all the employees. However, management competence, in the eyes of most employees, means that managers are willing to try to understand as much as possible what their employees do. It's simply not enough to sit in the corner office thinking "big picture", developing policies and procedures, and putting out high-level fires. You may think you've earned it, but it won't be enough for them. They need to trust that you can see the work world through their eyes so you can help solve problems, advocate for needed resources, and be their voice in the organization.
One final note about competence, and this is specifically for those of you who do work in highly technical fields. While competence is a component of trust, it is not the only component of trust. People will not trust you purely on your competence. If you are a doctor, lawyer, engineer, architect, mechanic, or elections technician, it's important that you understand this: you can't be so competent that they will trust you only on that competence. The certificate you have on your wall does not guarantee trust. You must also offer the other components of trust. You must be transparent, predictable, and show genuine concern.
