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‘Trust requires competence’ from legal leaders
Being vulnerable, open, and honest while remaining competent and self-aware is the best way for leaders in legal workplaces to build and maintain the trust of staff, says one managing partner.
Lauren Croft
Travis Schultz is the managing partner of Travis Schultz & Partners. Speaking on a recent episode of The Boutique Lawyer Show, he reflected on why trust is the currency of culture, why firms should be focusing on their long-term health rather than looking at quick fixes to their culture, and why trust is such a vital part of that in the current market.
“At the end of the day, trust requires competence because, at the end of the day, that is what finds the credibility that is your ticket to ride. Credibility is the single most important ingredient, in my view, at least, in earning the trust that you need to lead a team. Without it, you’re always going to struggle. And I think really it comes back then to the key leadership concepts that always get talked about,” he said.
“The trusted leader will have good self-awareness. The trusted leader will be a highly effective communicator. The trusted leader will empower and develop others. They will be a visionary. They will demonstrate resilience. They will be relationship builders. And I think probably most importantly, in terms of developing trust within an organisation, openness and transparency [are] absolutely critical. We often get told that leaders need to show vulnerability, and vulnerability obviously is important, but vulnerability on its own is a cancer, unless you’ve also got competence.
“If you are a competent leader who also shows vulnerability, then you will score very highly in the trust stacks. If you are a vulnerable leader who is incompetent, who doesn’t demonstrate all of those core aspects of credibility, then no one’s going to follow you, [and] no one’s going to trust you. If people feel as though they can rely on you because you are accountable, you handle conflict well, you are fair in all that you do, you don’t make excuses, and you set the standard, then they are highly likely to resonate with your vision, your values, your standards, and what you stand for.”
This, Schultz emphasised, can then lead to environments where a high-performing culture “truly can exist” – where leaders are also good managers.
“You can be a good manager without necessarily having all of the leadership skills that will enable you to lead a growing and high-performing organisation. But I think as a leader, you have to be both. A leader does need to also have management skills,” he said.
“I think, realistically, we need both management and leadership, but they exist on the same continuum. And I think that a good leader will also be a good manager because it is a core competency that builds the trust in the team, that demonstrates the credibility, the competence, that is the ticket to ride, the ticket to lead. And so, I would say that realistically, a good leader has both good management and good leadership skills.”
Particularly in times of economic crisis and with the rising cost of living, being a trustworthy leader has never been more important, added Schultz.
“When organisations are seen as focusing on the profitability to give to the owners of the organisation, whether that be partners or a sole practitioner or whoever it might be, without genuinely and in an authentic way, putting in place policies and processes and remuneration packages that also support those at the lower levels of the organisation. Without it, there will be distrust.
“And I think we’re seeing in the current economic times, this is crippling some organisations, those who are continuing to try and focus on maintaining profitability for the owners of the organisation without having a sensitivity to the needs, the real needs of those, all the way through the organisation, we’re going to see the crumbling of culture and a complete loss of trust. Because at the end of the day, relationships are two-way,” he said.
“We can’t exist without having people working at all levels, from the office, junior, straight out of school, through to your special counsel and your senior associates, your marketing managers, and your HR managers at all levels. We can’t exist without them. And when we, in these tough economic times, only focus on what matters financially to us, then we take a very real risk of destroying the trust that really is the fabric of culture.”
The transcript for this episode has been edited slightly for publishing purposes. To listen to the full episode with Travis Schultz, click below:
