In business, social and personal interactions, trust is a vital element in establishing a healthy and lasting relationship.

Trust is built up over time and through consistency of action.

There are no short cuts to establishing real trust and maintaining it over long periods.

It is something that comes as a consequence of being authentic in word and deed.

It’s very easy to say the right things to people – to tell them what they want to hear. It is more difficult to back this up with consistency and authenticity in action.

Telling people what they want to hear is very common in management – many managers attempt to befriend their staff and will appear to say all the right things in order to gain their trust and respect.

However, unless this is backed up with actions that support the words, it is nothing more than a sleight of hand move – a managerial card trick for the benefit of an easy life for the manager.

We have all experienced supervisors and managers who appear to be ‘on our side’ when it suits them, blaming any unpleasantness on their superiors – ‘there’s nothing I can do, this comes from the top’.

But what makes a manager a leader is being able to manage up the chain of command as well as down it.

This means being true to a sense of fairness and principle in dealing with those they are managing and conveying accurate information back up to more senior managers.

A good manager becomes a leader when they learn to be authentic, when they inform other decision makers of the likely and real consequences of their decisions, rather than meekly implementing them.