A ‘leader’ brings people together, and guides them towards a common goal. A good leader will motivate and inspire each individual to want to work to achieve the goal.
Leadership is about building relationships with others, suspending their own fears and doubts, contributing to achieving the goal in the best way possible. These relationships are based on trust, and they allow expectations to be exceeded and limitations to be ignored.
A trusting relationship means being able to rely on one another, meaning what you say and having faith in each other’s capabilities. Leaders build trusting relationships by allowing people to get to know them: by being open, honest and consistent.
But before a leader can build a trusting relationship with anyone else, they need to get to trust themselves. Being unsure of their own motivations or thoughts, or hiding their true beliefs is no basis for a relationship based on trust.