Читать книгу Becoming an Invitational Leader - William W Purkey - Страница 30

Following Fukuyama’s general rule, trust is created when an organization shares a set of values that creates expectations of regular and honest behavior. Further, as world-renowned leadership coaches Bennis and Nanus argue, if trust is to be developed in an organization, there must be predictability. Predictability is the capacity to anticipate the behavior of others. Another way of saying this is that organizations without trust would resemble the ambiguous nightmare of Kafka’s The Castle, where nothing could be certain and nobody could be relied upon or held accountable. The ability to predict outcomes with a high probability of success generates and maintains trust.

The vital importance of trust is evidenced by a series of studies on leadership practices in schools. These studies investigated the effectiveness of male and female educational leaders who practiced Invitational Leadership. In every study, the qualities of respect and trust were the most influential leadership qualities. Moreover, school principals viewed trust as the predominant influencing factor in their success.

Trust is established in predictable patterns of action, as opposed to a single act. It is created and maintained through sources identified as reliability (consistency, dependability, and predictability); genuineness (authenticity and congruence); truthfulness (honesty, correctness of opinion and validity of assertion); intent (good character, ethical stance, and integrity); and competence (intelligent behavior, expertness, and knowledge). Trust is established and maintained through these interlocking human qualities, and each reflects Invitational Leadership in action.

The leader who has established trust throughout his or her organization has come a long way toward ensuring the ultimate success of that organization. Indeed, trust by definition implies dependence on one another. We depend upon each other to tell the truth, as well as to work with each other’s best interests in mind. Our dependence on one another also allows for the kind of creativity that can only emerge during collaborative work — what motivational speaker and writer Stephen Covey, in The Nature of Leadership