A trustworthy leader is crucial if a team is to function with confidence. If the leader does not trust their team or the team does not trust their leader, initiative and productivity will be greatly diminished; conversely, when trust flourishes, accomplishment abounds. Read 2 Kings 12:13-16.

Joash was established as the king of Judah when he was seven years old. As a young man he served God and helped the priests repair the spiritual condition of the people. During those years he also asked the priests to repair the physical condition of the temple. Years went by and even though Joash had authorized the use of selected temple offerings for the repairs, the priests used the offerings to make expensive silver basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, and other articles of gold and silver for the temple but no repairs to the structure.

When Joash was 30, in his 23rd year as king, he demanded the repairs be done and took the task out of the priests’ hands. He asked Jehoiada, Chief Priest, to collect all but the guilt offering and sin offering, which belong to the priests, for the construction project. Jehoiada established a special collection process and together with the royal secretary he counted the money whenever the collection chest was filled. “When the amount had been determined, they gave the money to the men appointed to supervise the work on the temple” (v. 11).

The leaders selected to supervise the construction craftsmen were above reproach in their leadership. In fact verse 15 says, “They did not require an accounting from those to whom they gave the money to pay the workers, because they acted with complete honesty.”

A few elements of an effective trust relationship:

• Trust has to be earned through actions.
• A leader’s words about trust without corresponding actions to support those words are not trustworthy.
• Once trust is earned, increasing levels of trust have to be given with all the risks that go with that gift.
• Once trust is earned, only giving partial or conditional trust is nearly as de-motivating as not trusting at all.
• Establishing clearly defined checkpoints to verify progress is not a trust breaker unless the checkpoints are a way to keep from really trusting your team.
• Complete trust should be easier as a work relationship develops over time.
• If trust is broken wise leaders have a process for re-establishing mutual trust.

Do you have a reputation as a trustworthy leader? Could the people that give you assignments walk away with total confidence that you would complete the job with integrity even if you were left totally unsupervised? How about when you give an assignment, do you trust your team enough to give them both the responsibility for the job and the authority to do the job? There is tremendous motivation within a team when there is a climate of trust. Effective leaders understand the power of trust.