Trust in Leadership for Sustaining Innovations: How Leaders Enact on Showing Trustworthiness

In the environment of continuous change today, trust is needed more in most organizations but is enacted less. This paper discusses trust in leadership. Trust is the essence of leadership forming a foundation for functioning relationships and co-operation. Trust is intangible asset, a managerial skill, and an influencing power for leaders. Leadership by trust emphasizes trustful behavior towards employees. It can be defined as an interactive way of leading organizations for effectiveness and profitability. In this paper, we suggest that, it is trustworthiness in leader behavior that matters. Showing trustworthiness by competence, integrity, benevolence, and credibility makes a difference in daily leadership work and sustaining innovations. This paper focuses on how leaders enact on trust by showing trustworthiness to subordinates. Real life case examples are presented and their implications are discussed. In conclusion, leadership by trust matters in building innovative work environment. As to untrustworthy leader behavior, it is worth noting that building and sustaining trust is reciprocal in nature. A practical implication for leaders is that the development of an awareness of trustworthiness and skills for demonstrating it should be a top priority in the current business environment, which demands strong interaction, cooperation, and communication abilities.