Building trust is vital to leadership.

Leaders are dealing with doubts, fears and uncertainty of decisions and emotions every day. In a time of great unrest and change, having solid core skills to combat doubt and uncertainty, which erodes the trust, is essential. Eight skills to develop to keep strong:

1. Get Clarity
Define what you believe in and be able to articulate it clearly.

2. Get Perspective
When you are going to communicate a message of change or challenge, vet it first amongst peers and naysayers. Get many perspectives and be prepared to answer and respond to the questions.

3. Be Open
Remember doubt comes through questions and this provides an open door to learning, growth, and engagement for all involved.

4. Be Generous
Share with others small wins you have seen or experienced by moving in this direction. Share the risks you have vetted and mitigated before beginning the journey.

5. Speak Truth
State their fears, doubts and uncertainties and shine the light on them. Share with them your insights, experiences and belief.

6. Explore Options
Get others to tell their stories of when they learned to go in new directions. Explore with them all the options you have considered, see if they have other ideas, generate new and different thinking.

7. Let go of You
Be aware that others doubt and uncertainty is not about you, it is about a lack of trust in self. The willingness to take the adventure into the unknown is filled with uncertainty, mistakes and potential failure. What they don’t realize is that staying the same can still be filled with uncertainty, mistakes and potential failure.

8. Believe
Remember to believe, for it is your beliefs which will hold you as move through the mystery and define new areas of growth.

Being a leader means you are often in the position of defining new paths and moving into new areas. You have learned to trust the voice inside you that says “wouldn’t it be interesting if…” If you are this type of person, then you have to get good at reaching out to others and helping them learn to trust themselves as they move into the mystery…with you.

“Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.”
Rita Mae Brown