The other day I was wondering if trust flow from bottom to top or top to bottom in an organization? So also respect, does respect flow top to bottom or bottom to top?
The team has to respect its leadership! Leadership, not just for their openness to learn, honesty, transparency, speed to action, judicious risk taking, as organizational figureheads and their industry knowledge but more importantly as humans! The same is true of the leadership’s respect for the team particularly when entrusting them with authority and accountability. Way too many will supposedly ‘entrust’ and ‘empower’ their teams only to stifle them with a constant need to track progress and micro manage. Respect and trust to are the two sides of the same coin!
What is the most logical flow of trust in organizations? Can respect help influence and enable the direction of this flow? Given the relationship between trust and respect one can not survive without the other! Trust can certainly help develop respect so also respect can help build trust. Are there traits necessary for the genesis of trust some visible and some invisible like - Career experiences, education, intellect, persona, title, etc. or can trust stand for itself? Respect can sometimes be misinterpreted for fear but trust is rarely misconstrued.
Respect can start with a positive base but trust clearly needs to be invested into from zero, leadership cannot withdraw from the trust capital without having created a base.
