During the last few weeks it seems like the number of newspaper articles and blog postings regarding trust and authenticity have jumped significantly. Perhaps it’s because we (in the USA) are in the midst of political primary season or perhaps it’s just that I’m noticing things I overlooked before. Phil Meyers has a great post about the authenticity election in which he links the trends of the current election with principles that apply in leadership and the business world:

What has our eye most is the authenticity trend….What we eventually settled on was ‘Establishing Authentic Connections’ as it best described the ability to create and communicate leading thoughts that motivate specific buyers to act because they are believable.

Norman Wolfe gives another great example on how the NY Giants thrived under the leadership of a coach and the power of a team. Their coach, Tom Coughlin, took a deliberate journey to change who he was and to create a climate of trust in which his team could flourish.

Regardless of whether you are a CEO, team leader, product manager or coach, developing a climate of trust is essential to long-term growth and productivity. Living honestly and authentically are keys to developing such an environment (or at least they give us a good starting point).