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The Decline in Trust & Confidence in Leadership

Guest post by: betty shotton

Article Overview: We are wintnessing an alarming trend of public distrust and disrepect of leadership. This trend can have significant consequences on the future as it is our leaders that we look to for vision and hope and guidance. Without faith in leaders where do we go? How do we restore trust & confidence back into this once revered profession? Join LiftOFF Leadership in discussions of a leadership renaissance.

The Decline in Trust & Confidence in Leadership

"We still have the possibility of building a civilization based on Man, where the importance of an enterprise is judged less by its financial profits than by the kind of community it creates; where the measure of a man is his own character, not his power or his wealth. If we have sufficient desire, we can still build a civilization whose leadership rests on the respect and confidence it instills in others and whose standard of life is the quality of life itself"

Charles A. Lindbergh

February 4, 1902 ƒÚAugust 26, 1974

There are plenty of crises in the world today: financial, oil dependency, climate change, terrorism, health care, overpopulation, a degraded environment, and many more to contemplate. The volume and frequency of these crises are enough to satisfy the most voracious appetite for a challenge. But there is one crisis that trumps them all. It gets little press and is not well-defined or articulated. If resolved, it has the power to lift and strengthen the human spirit. But if unresolved, it can continue to lead us downwards into a chaotic world of protectionism, violence, destruction, greed, and despair. The crisis of which I speak is

"A Crisis of Leadership"

At this time in human history, our world and its inhabitants are in critical need of high- caliber leaders who exhibit the attributes and values of successful and admired leaders from the past. However, what we are experiencing is an alarming display of leadership corruption, fraud, greed, and a disquieting lack of regard for the needs of the greater good. We see it in sports, finance, religion, politics, business, and profit and nonprofit organizations alike. We see it in companies, big and small, and organizational structures of all types.

The lack of ethical leadership is pervasive.

Along with this erosion of leadership values has come a decline in public trust. According to the 2009 National Study of Confidence in Leadership produced by The Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership, 69% of Americans agree or strongly agree that we have a crisis in leadership today. And this statistic is an improvement since 2005, the first year this study was initiated. At that time, the confidence level was at 70% agreeing or strongly agreeing that there is a crisis-hardly an improvement on which to rejoice.

To me, this loss of confidence in leaders is unacceptable. After all, it is to our leaders that we look for truth and integrity, accountability and altruism, hope and courage. That confidence score should be well below 25%. It should be the exception and not the rule that the public has a basic distrust of its leaders.

An absence of trust of leadership is a recipe for disaster. It truly spells "crisis" and one that is deserving of our attention because leaders play a critical role in shaping the future. The very nature of leadership is to "lead" others towards some common goal or purpose. It is from the conduct and character of leaders that others take their cues.

There are solutions to this crisis in leadership. I have a few ideas and i will share them in subsequent articles. I welcome the opinions and perspectives of others.

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Article Tags: altruism, integrity, Leadership, values



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