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How to Avoid Hiring an Untrustworthy Leader
A leadership candidate can have an impressive résumé, deliver a flawless interview, and say all the right things. But what happens when that person is actually in charge? Few decisions have a greater impact on an organization's performance and culture than choosing its leaders. Yet even experienced hiring managers can mistake confidence for competence and charisma for character. The consequences often become apparent only after the new leader takes charge. How can you distinguish a candidate who interviews well from someone who will genuinely earn the trust of a team?
The Gift of Feedback
High performance requires more than trust. It requires the candor to face what is not working, even when the truth is uncomfortable. The strongest teams create an environment where people can challenge performance without attacking the person, and where feedback is received as a gift rather than a threat.
Making Connection is Inconvenient
Leaders are expected to use time wisely. But when efficiency shapes nearly every interaction, leadership can become transactional. Real connection requires attention, presence, and effort. It often means choosing the slower, more personal response when a faster one would be easier. That inconvenience may be exactly what makes the connection meaningful.
Trust Is A Passport
Trust is the passport to enter relationships that matter. But that permission is never automatic. Leaders earn it through character, commitment, competence, connection, and communication. The question is not whether your title gives you access. It is whether the people who matter believe you have earned it.
Building Trust: A Leader’s Field Guide
Trust isn’t granted with a leadership position. It has to be earned through hundreds of interactions, decisions, conversations, and promises kept. When I inherited a team struggling with mistrust and unhappiness, I used the 5Cs of Operational Trust as a practical field guide for rebuilding relationships and creating positive momentum.
Amor Fati
Years after enduring seven years as a POW in North Vietnam, Vice Admiral James Stockdale described his captivity as “the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.” How could anyone say that? The Stoic principle of Amor Fati offers a powerful perspective on adversity that every leader can apply.
RETURN WITH HONOR
What allowed American POWs to endure years of unimaginable hardship without losing hope? Captain Charlie Plumb’s experience as a Vietnam POW is more than an extraordinary survival story. It is a powerful case study in how character, trust, purpose, and community enable leaders and teams to remain undaunted when circumstances are at their worst.
Commitment: The power of MISSION
Why do some people stay committed when others lose momentum? The answer is not willpower alone. Undaunted Leaders understand that lasting commitment comes from a clear sense of purpose—a mission strong enough to overcome pressure, setbacks, and adversity.
CHARACTER: Who Are You Becoming?
Leadership is not just about what you do. It is about who you are becoming—and whether your daily behavior earns people’s trust.