The virtue of trustworthiness is the keystone for an admirable career for it encompasses competence as well as honesty, integrity, and the other virtues commonly associated with an ethical person. One cannot simply "get by" with mediocre performance and be trustworthy because when a person dances on the edge of competence, one never knows when the dancer will fall off. Given the dynamic nature of jobs, trustworthiness demands that skills be continually developed and that the individual have a keen ethical sensitivity to spot when other ethical virtues such as fairness, caring, and respect may be violated.
A person who simply does the job and does not strengthen the foundations of trustworthiness may be a good employee and yet fall far short of the excellence which is achieved by those attend to all of its components. It is not unusual for people to look back at points in their career when they thought they were outstanding and realize, after years of growth, that they had much room for improvement.
2 comments:
Hi Michael,
Great post, I often feel that the role of trust is often under valued and yet underpins nearly all the important decisions we make.
I don't know if you have read David Maister's book the trusted advisor? This gives a really well thought out overview of the subject. In his book Maister breaks down trust into 4 elements
Credibility
Show you’ve done your homework.
Take a point of view.
Speak the truth … always.
Combine your words with presence.
Reliability,
Make lots of small promises
Be on time
Use their terminology
Intimacy
Be willing to name the proverbial elephant in the room.
Listen with empathy.
Tell them something you appreciate about them.
Address people by name.
Low Self-Orientation
Give away ideas
Build a shared agenda
Steer clear of premature problem solving
Relax your mind
Would be interested in your thoughts
Nigel
Nigel,
Thank you for your comments. I have read Maister's excellent book.
One challenge for all of us is determining how to handle the conflicts between virtues; e.g., honesty versus caring.
Another challenge is avoiding the barriers that can be created by egotism. Maister deals with that in Low Self-Orientation. [Smugness may be one of the primary opponents of trustworthiness and humility can be an ally.]
Best,
Michael
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