Management is Trust

One of the most important qualities of being human is trust. Managers are human. Therefore one of the most important qualities of a manager is trust.

Trust is not absolute. If a manager looks for people to be trustworthy 100% of the time they will always be disappointed. If they assume people are 0% trustworthy the manager can never delegate, and therefore aren’t a manager, just a competent employee.

The key is understanding that team members are relatively trustworthy and to never invest more trust in them than they display worth of through their actions. One has to know their direct reports well and know with what they can be trusted and to what extent.

If you’re can’t determine a person’s trustworthiness in an interview you shouldn’t hire them. If you can’t navigate relative levels of competency in labor performance you shouldn’t manage.

There are a lot of people who can be trusted and will even thrive with well-defined responsibilities. There are a lot of people out there who are great clock punchers and who will assume full responsibility over their throughput. A good manager knows how to navigate and incentivize them and all the labor that falls into gray areas between.

Management is trust. As my mom once said, it’s not a job’s responsibility to make someone a better person. But it is a manager’s responsibility to hire people who can be trusted with the maximum level of responsibility they can handle. Less and the team member will be disgruntled. More and they will burn out.

Do right by your customers, partners, and associates. Don’t waste time trying to trust people with any less or any more than they can handle.

Be a good manager.