Key ingredient for great leadership is trust 
I recently came across a post on social media by a person that had the title of senior manager on his profile. The post said:
“I do not care whether you come into the office at 10 a.m. I do not care if you choose to work from home or not. I do not care if you work from the garage while they fix your car. I hired you for a job and I trust you to get it done. Just let me know what you need from me to be successful in your role. And I will show up for you.
“Life happens!”
“You do not need to justify to me why you need a day off. You do not need to explain how sick your child is to leave early. You do not need to apologize for having a personal life. Yes, I care about results but I also care about you. We are all human and we are all adults. I lead people. I do not run an adult daycare center.”
I am not sure why this individual has chosen the title of senior manager when he is clearly a leader. I must admit, I am jealous of the style of leadership from this self-named senior manager. I would have loved to have this kind of leadership as my reporting line a couple of years ago when I was running an adult daycare center. I also understand that this leadership style might not suit everyone.
Some employees get lost in this kind of leadership as they want a manager to tell them what to do next and even how to do it. While others are self-directed and like to be proactive and come up with solutions to problems they experienced or witnessed on the job. Some are suffocated from the style of management that their bosses exhibit as it makes the employees feel like they are mere robots. They do what they are being programmed to do with no space for their personal touch and creativity at work.
You can be anywhere on the planet and still get your work done. So sitting in the office is not an indicator that you are working. As a leader, I must have trust in my team to get things done.
Dr. Taghreed Al-Saraj
And if you have not guessed it by now, this is the No. 1 reason why employees resign from their jobs. It is their boss or direct line manager that they want to get away from. To be fair, there are many more reasons why companies have such a high turnaround, but at the top of the list as to why employees resign or look to change jobs is sadly their bosses.
Let us go back and analyze a sentence that this self-named senior manager wrote. The sentence I am referring to is, “I hired you for a job and I trust you to get it done.” Can you guess what is the keyword mentioned here for great leadership? In my view, this senior manager pinpointed a key ingredient for leadership, which is “trust.”
As a leader, I must have trust in my team to get things done.
But trust is a two-way street. As much as the leader must be able to trust his or her team to deliver on its objectives, the team must trust that its leader will be there when needed inside — and sometimes outside — of the office in order to get the work done.
Another key element for great leadership that this senior manager alluded to was the location. You can be anywhere on the planet and still get your work done.
So sitting in the office is not an indicator that you are working. It is your sense of responsibility that will push you to get your work done even if you are sitting on the beach sipping a pina-colada. I am not sure if you agree with me or not, but being a great leader has to do with giving team members a chance to shine so they can become independent individuals at work.
• Dr. Taghreed Al-Saraj is a best-selling Saudi author, an international public speaker and an entrepreneurship mentor.
