Be a Trusted Leader in
the Cannabis Industry:
Lead by example!
“We can build our leadership upon fear, obligation, or trust. However, only a foundation of trust results in the collaboration and goodwill necessary to achieve our peak performance.”
These words, from organizational design expert Roger Allen, expresses the role that trust plays in building and leading high-performance organizations.
With the integrity of the cannabis industry under a microscope, it’s valuable to take a moment for a refresher on trust in leadership. Yes, you are a leader in the industry, locally and globally.
According to Seattle-based management expert Stephen Robbins, trust is based on four other distinct elements in your relationship with the people you lead:
1.To a certain extent, your team can only trust you to the degree you are committed to their success and well-being. You want your team to feel confident that they are offering the best quality products and giving their personalized best care to your customers and patients.
2. At first this may seem strange—after all, can’t incompetent people be trusted? Of course, but not if you want to lead. Leaders are held to a different standard, and part of what your team trusts is that you know what you’re doing.
3. This is one of the most pragmatic elements of trust. If your team knows what you stand for, then they will believe that you will react in a predictable way to certain situations. Over time your consistently expressed values become the shared values of the team. Some charismatic leaders may purposely act unpredictably to “shake things up,” and they may well be wildly successful. But they won’t necessarily be trusted.
4. Trust is ultimately the characteristic of a relationship, and it is through its relationship with you that your team expresses their trust. Openness is a cornerstone of the ability to build these relationships. If your team can’t get to know you, then they probably can’t get to trust you, either. With openness comes the requirement for a certain vulnerability: In this arena, you will generally have to “go first” by reaching out and creating such relationships.
Where do you stand on the TRUST scale?
- How do you show your team that you are committed to to their success and well-being?
- Does your team trust that you know what you’re doing?
- What will your team say that you stand for?
- Are you open or a mystery?
By investing in building and strengthening these qualities in your leadership, you will be steadily reinforcing your trust relationship with the people who work for you and the customers who buy from your dispensary or the dispensaries that buy your products.
Those relationships, in turn, become the foundation for building a high-performance organization, particularly in times of change and stress, when people tend to rely upon their personal relationships. If your team trusts you in good times, they are even more likely to stand with you when the times turn challenging.
Author’s content used under license, © 2008 Claire Communications
