There is a widely known psychological study conducted by Walter Mischel, a psychologist at Stanford University. Mischel wanted to study delayed gratification in four-year olds. One at a time, the children were seated in front of a marshmallow and the researcher told them that they could eat the marshmallow right then, but if they waited for the researcher to return from a brief errand, they would receive a second marshmallow. Some kids ate the marshmallow within seconds. But other children waited up to 20 minutes for the researcher to return. 14 years later, they found that the children who had delayed gratification were more trustworthy, more dependable, more self-reliant and confident than the children who had no impulse control. When I recounted this study in a workshop on emotional intelligence, a participant remarked that he wanted to try this experiment with his own child. I cautioned him, however, that there is a very important variable to take into account and that is, does the child trust that there will be a second marshmallow? If previous promises made to the child were broken, the child may not trust that, this time, the adult will keep a promise. Trust is largely an emotional act, based on an anticipation of reliance. It is fragile, like a Christmas tree ornament, and one slip can shatter it.

Trust pervades nearly every aspect of our daily lives. It is fundamental in the healthy functioning of all of our relationships with others. It is even tied to our wealth. In a Scientific American article, Dr. Paul J. Zak, a neuroeconomist at Claremont Graduate University, discovered that trust is among the strongest known predictors of a country’s wealth; nations with low levels tend to be poor. Dr. Zak’s model showed that societies with low levels of trust are poor because the inhabitants undertake too few of the long-term investments that create jobs and raise incomes. Such investments depend on mutual trust that both sides will fulfill their contractual obligations.

In seeking to understand what was physically going on in the human brain that instilled trust, he discovered that oxytocin, a hormone and neurotransmitter, increases our propensity to trust others in the absence of threatening signals. We are indeed wired to trust each other but, as Dr. Zak points out, our life experiences may ‘retune’ the oxytocin to a different “set point” and thus to different levels of trust throughout the course of life. When our experiences are predicated by a safe, nurturing and caring environment, our brains are stimulated to release more oxytocin when someone trusts us—and to reciprocate that trust. The obverse – situations that involve stress, uncertainty and isolation – interfere with the development of a trusting disposition and decrease the oxytocin levels.

In today’s uncertain climate, it is not surprising, then, that study after study shows a decline in the trust level individuals have of business and political leaders and institutions. The Edelman Trust Barometer for 2009 found that nearly two in three informed publics in 20 countries trust organizations less now than they did a year ago. A 2004 study by Towers Perrin, shows that only 44% of junior employees (those earning less than $50,000 per year) trust that their employer tells them the truth. This is an alarming statistic especially given how much time, effort and concern are expended in crafting leadership communications to employees.

Even though we are faced with a crisis in leadership trust, and have ample examples of leaders who eroded their employees’, customers’ and shareholders’ trust, I am a firm believer that the majority of leaders walk the path of trustworthiness. In fact, it can be harrowing for most leaders if they received feedback that others didn’t find them trustworthy. But being trustworthy, in someone’s eyes, is based on their perception and may be strongly influenced by the fracture of trust that they may have experienced in the world around them. Indeed, being trusted as a leader today is not axiomatic. Trust needs to be earned through diligence, fidelity and applied effort. Our trust thermostat has different settings for different people.

If lack of trust is an issue which causes you concern, what can you do to manage perceptions of trust in an unstable and slippery environment? Here are a few quick tips:

1. Monitor your use of “I” in your communications with your constituents. Do an audit of your emails, for example, and see how frequently you use “I” as opposed to “we”. Peter Drucker said: “The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say “I.” And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say “I.” They don’t think “I.” They think “we”; they think “team.” They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but “we” gets the credit. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.”

2. View promises you make as an unpaid debt.

3. Know that in an era of virus scans, firewalls and anti-spyware, constituents will not automatically download your messages. A message will not be accepted if it’s not believable and believability hinges on congruity: is your message congruent with all of your other actions? For example, if you tell employees that quality is an important value in the organization but in a crisis situation, when a product has to go out the door to meet a client deadline, you find yourself forced to tell employees to cut corners at the expense of quality, the believability of subsequent messages about quality will be diluted.

4. Have a continuous conversation about what matters. Sixty percent of respondents in the Edelman Barometer of Trust said they need to hear a company message three to five times before they believe it. Perhaps Lewis Carol knew a thing or two when he said: “What I tell you three times is true.”

5. Your brand as a leader is your reputation. Like a haunting melody, it will follow you everywhere you go and in everything you do. Manage your brand, what you want to be known for, as diligently as Nike or Volvo manage theirs. Brand is trust.

6. Be known as a truth teller in your organization. I believe it was Peter Senge who said that we tell the truth in organizations up to the level of our paycheck, up to the level of our embarrassment. A leader I coached recently mentioned to me that, during a challenging time preceding an impending merger, he was troubled by employees asking for information that he was not at liberty to disclose at that time. What do you do in such a situation to preserve the trust you have with your constituent while honoring the confidentiality of sensitive information? An honest compromise would be to share what you can (there is always something we can share) and to add: “This is all I can share right now.” This preserves the trust as your people know that you did not lie, and, they understand that even though you have more information, strategic imperatives prevent you from sharing it just then.

7. Earn the faith of your customers by insisting on everyone observing the five pillars of trust : a) keep your promises; b) be willing to help; c) treat customers as individuals; d) make it easy for customers to do business with you; e) ensure all physical aspects of your product or service give a favorable impression. (Source: Winning Customers, by 1000 Ventures.)

8. As much as this is hard to do, don’t lead through email. Get out from behind your desk periodically and have face time with people. The more time you spend with people, the more the level of trust increases. If you are leading virtual teams, pick up the phone more often. The most powerful piece of communication technology is the human voice.

9. Do you manage your moods or do people experience you as agreeable one day and confrontational the next? Predictability engenders trust.

10. Are the corporate stories you tell consistent or do they vary depending on who you are speaking to? It’s so easy to get caught up in the moment and exaggerate claims or elaborate on a fictional reality. Even though your intentions are totally harmless, these little slips chip away at trust because people don’t judge us by our intentions.

11. Do you make people feel safe? Fear and trust are mutually exclusive. Most leaders would be shocked to find out that, in many cases, some people may fear them. As a leader, you have a lot of power: the power to hire, fire, promote and demote; the power to assign or withdraw choice assignments and perks; the power to give or withhold recognition. Against the current backdrop of unemployment and a failing economy, people’s fears can be magnified. An empathetic leader senses this and devotes effort and time to make people feel safe. Empathy involves understanding others’ anxiety and making a genuine effort to reduce it.

12. Organizations typically spend considerable amounts of money and considerable mental energy and effort in team building initiatives, including workshops, retreats, and adventure type experiences. While all of these have their place, if one wants to crack the code that will dramatically increase collaboration and enhance teamwork, one needs to start with the trust factor. It’s the benchmark of the health of the relationships in the team and it’s a very simple process. It is all about individual behaviors. Do individuals behave in a trustworthy manner or not? There is only a pass or fail. And what are these behaviors? We all instinctively know them but sometimes, we need to remind ourselves, and each other, of what they are. Ask yourself:

• Do I share information that I know is helpful to others or do I withhold it?
• Do I treat everyone with grace? Grace is a disposition of kindness and compassion.
• Do I practice benevolence in my dealings with others? Benevolence is a disposition to do good.
• Do I follow through on my commitments, even if it is at considerable personal expense?
• Do I seize opportunities to encourage others?
• Am I just as happy about others’ achievements as I am of my own?
• Do I strive to consistently deliver work that is exceedingly great?
• Is “candid” a quality people would readily attribute to me?

Trust is power. It’s the power to inspire and influence. It’s the glue that bonds us to each other, that strengthens relationships and turns threads of connections into strings of iron. Like four-year olds trusting that there will be a second marshmallow, can your constituents trust that your word is your bond? Leadership is difficult work. As George Washington said:“I can promise nothing but purity of intentions, and, in carrying these into effect, fidelity and diligence.”

Copyright © 2009 by Bruna Martinuzzi. All Rights Reserved. For expanded tips on leadership, see my new book, The Leader as a Mensch: Become the Kind of Person Others Want to Follow.