In recent years, military and civilian leaders have published myriad articles discussing the importance of building a cohesive and productive organizational culture. One key theme exists at the core of these attempts to bring people together: trust.
Throughout my leadership experience, I learned and applied certain foundational aspects of trust that will never go away. The first is the importance of promoting a culture of people taking care of people. The second aspect is discipline, and the third is leader authenticity.
Soldiers want to know that their leaders care about them and their families, and this can only be demonstrated through the leader’s actions. For example, while serving on an Army staff, I recall my leader demonstrating his position on taking care of soldiers’ families through his actions. When I had a parent-teacher conference, he supported my coverage plan for meetings and other responsibilities. He did not talk about how important my meetings and work responsibilities were; he acted on my behalf.
His selfless actions made a difference in my family’s life and nurtured trust in our relationship. Soldiers and families are the heart of the Army, and building a cohesive team starts with leaders taking care of them. This practice requires intentionality and discipline.
Promoting Confidence
The second aspect of building trust is instilling discipline—being proficient at completing fundamental tasks routinely. This fosters trust among soldiers and the team. For example, physical fitness, driver’s training, communications, small-arms and crew-served certifications and maintenance all require discipline. Disciplined soldiers position a team for continued success, which prepares them to face the next challenge. Discipline enables soldiers to learn their jobs and boosts their confidence in the organization’s capabilities.
The team I work with is a perfect example of this. Each member possesses unique talents that allow the team leader to make informed decisions. We strive to be disciplined and regularly coordinate to ensure everyone is informed and has the necessary information to produce results and satisfy requirements.
On this team, every member’s job is equally important, just like in a team sport.
Another example of ways to build trust is senior leaders who intentionally schedule time for themselves to process the massive amounts of information from multiple meetings throughout the day. This methodology helps guide and inform the right decisions for the Army. Leaders must know their limits and focus on making the best possible decisions.
Leaders also should prioritize taking care of themselves to take care of their teams. Sometimes, a hidden contributor to an unhealthy workplace is a leader’s inability to model self-care. This erodes soldiers’ trust in their leaders’ ability to take care of them.
Some of us have seen leaders who overwork their organization and need to be involved with every small detail. But when the organization reaches the point of exhaustion, the opportunity for poor decisions, sour attitudes and short tempers becomes more likely.
During my tenure as a brigade executive officer, a senior NCO always planned recreational events when he had time off and had great stories to share upon his return to work. He was demonstrating the importance of resilience and teaching soldiers how to get involved with events outside work that enabled them to stay mentally fit. His actions demonstrated self-care and built trust among his subordinates.
Lastly, to build trust, a leader must be authentic. An authentic leader is self-aware and possesses the ability to self-reflect and self-correct. Failure is a component of growth and necessitates time to self-reflect to gain insights to develop, adapt and evolve. It is difficult to trust someone who is unable to reflect on their behavior and identify disparities in their thinking.
I worked for a senior Army leader known to self-reflect and spend time thinking about how his actions affected people. He was approachable and genuinely listened, responded and interacted with us. He often discussed the importance of effective communication and relationship-building, all while staying authentic to himself.
Being genuine is a valuable trait essential to building trust. Good leaders value everyone’s uniqueness, promote growth and do not look to create miniversions of themselves.
From the smallest individual activity to the most complex multiechelon operation, trust is a key component of a team’s success and the cornerstone of an organization’s success.
Whether planning modernization efforts, participating in a combat training center rotation or preparing for deployment, an organization will not be consistently effective without taking care of its people, instilling discipline and benefiting from authentic leadership.
Lt. Col. Richard Farnell is commander of the 2nd Battalion, 18th Field Artillery Regiment, Camp Casey, South Korea. Previously, he served as deputy director, Vice Chief of Staff Initiatives Group, the Pentagon. He has had multiple company-level commands and served as an observer coach/trainer at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California. He is a graduate of MIT Seminar XXI, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.