Trustworthiness Matters

Trust is one's willingness to be vulnerable to another based on the confidence that the other is benevolent, honest, open, reliable, and competent...Megan Tschannen-Moran

Fear. Suspicion. Disdain. Alternative Facts. One cannot spend much time on social media or traditional media without recognizing that these attitudes are pervasive in today's world. These conditions undermine the trust that is fundamental to the building of effective educational communities and make it more important than ever that leaders are intentional about building trust.
Building trust involves both extending trust and acting/living in such a way as to be worthy of trust. Bryk and Schneider identified 4 significant components that are present in someone who is regarded as trustworthy:

1. Respect - exhibiting care, concern, or consideration for another's thoughts or feelings. Respectful exchanges are marked by genuinely listening to what each person has to say. 
2. Integrity - honesty, being true to a moral/ethical compass, reliably doing the right thing.
3. Personal Regard - having a genuine concern for the best interests of others, conveying a sense that others are truly cared about.
4. Competence - the ability to achieve desired outcomes.

In order to foster trust, to be perceived as trustworthy, all of these components must be in place. Missing any one (or more) of these will prevent the establishment of relational trust that is so important in empowering learners to collaborate, to take risks, to creatively contribute to the betterment of the community.
Demonstrating respect, integrity, competence, showing personal regard - these are all within the sphere of our own control.