Trust is at the core of leadership. One might think he/she is a leader, but if they aren’t trusted by those under them they aren’t leaders. There’s no way around it. Followers, also, will not follow those who they don’t believe can trust, themselves. Let the following quote from The Leadership Challenge sink in a bit.

People who work for highly controlling managers are more likely to keep information to themselves, hide the truth, and be dishonest about what is going on.

No surprise, then, that controlling managers have low credibility. Highly controlling behaviors- inspecting, correcting, checking up- signal lack of trust. How do you respond to people who don’t trust you? You don’t trust them. And because trustworthiness is a key element of personal credibility, credibility diminishes. People are unlikely to believe someone who does not exhibit trust in them.

In business and organizations, controls are important. In highly personal interactive environments, though, there must also be significant trust for there to be internal healthiness. Trust and credibility must exist from to to bottom. If these aren’t present, dysfunction is inevitable.

Brad Palmore recently completed the MACRR program and was instrumental in convincing me to pursue it, as well. Brad has begun a series of blog posts that deal with Church Systems. His insights are deep and will test you, but it has been worth it so far. I can’t wait to see where he goes. But if you yearn to better understand Church Systems- how they operate, why they operate the way they do, and why things have developed the way they have- then I think you need to subscribe to his blog. Here is a link to his first post in this series.

Real leadership, though, takes others, especially one’s family, into consideration. Leadership isn’t synonymous with Dictatorship. God wants men to be leaders in the home, not dictators of the home.

This leads to the subject of spirituality. Sadly, it often seems that women are the more spiritual of the two in a lot of family units. My wife for years yearned for me to lead my family in our spiritual walk. It is amazing how easy it is to get wrapped up in others to the neglect of one’s own family. I was willing to try to lead my church in devotions, but not my family. But no more.

Moreover, I have friends who’ve sat in my office crying and wishing the same from their husbands. Ironically, we often don’t lead, not because we don’t necessarily know how, but rather because we are ashamed that we don’t as we should. It’s a trap, one from which we find it difficult to break free.

Below is a song by Sanctus Real that speaks to this very issue. It is an amazing song, with one of the most powerful messages that could be offered to husbands and fathers. It is an acoustic rendition and the singer/writer takes a few moments to elaborate on how the song came into being. If you are like me, or if you are a spouse who wishes for your husband to assume his place in your life, it will resonate with you. So take a deep breath and soak it in.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojUxGGaiKz4[/youtube]