October 4th, 2026 by Mike Manazir – (4-5 minutes)
How do you build trust and credibility?
There is an old leadership story about a bank interviewing a promising young executive. He had everything going for him. Great résumé. Smart. Articulate. Strong references. He had made it through several rounds of interviews and appeared to be the leading candidate.
During a lunch break, the bank president took him to a nearby buffet. While moving through the line, she noticed him slip two small tabs of butter beneath the edge of his plate and then pass through the cashier without paying for them.
Two tabs of butter. Almost nothing. So what would you do?
Ignore it? You have invested hours interviewing this guy. He may be the best candidate you have seen. Are you really going to blow up the process over a few cents’ worth of butter?
According to the story, the bank did exactly that. The leadership team concluded that the issue wasn’t butter. It was trust. If someone will quietly compromise his integrity when almost nothing is at stake, what happens when millions of dollars are?
That story has stuck with me because leadership trust is usually built—or lost—in moments that seem small. Your people are watching. Not because they are waiting for you to fail. They are trying to answer a much more important question:
Can I trust this person?
I think trust rests on three things.
I call them the 3 Cs: Character, Competence, and Consistency.
Character: Will you do the right thing?
Character isn’t what you say you believe. It is what you do when the decision costs you something. Will you tell the truth when the truth makes you look bad? Will you take responsibility when your team misses the mark? Will you protect your people instead of protecting your ego? Will you make the right call when nobody is watching?
That is character. But character alone isn’t enough.
Competence: Do you know the right thing to do?
You can be a wonderful human being and still be a lousy leader if you don’t know your business – or don’t know the business of leadership. People need to trust your heart—but they also need to trust your judgment.
I learned that lesson in the Navy. Years before I commanded USS Sacramento, I attended ship-driving training in Newport, Rhode Island. An experienced ship captain and instructor named Bud Weeks challenged something I had accepted as fact: that two large ships simply couldn’t pass each other in the San Diego channel. Bud showed me they could. He challenged my assumptions and increased my competence.
Years later, commanding Sacramento, that lesson mattered. We first passed a submarine in the channel. Then, about a week later, we executed what I called the “Texas Two-Step,” passing the USS Abraham Lincoln. Texas Two Step because my old friend, Kendall Card was the Commanding Officer of the Lincoln and he was a big Texan.
It was tight. It got everybody’s attention. And when my former commanding officer Rick Wren later heard about it, he apparently turned red as a rooster, arguing with Kelly that it couldn’t be done. Well…we had.
I didn’t make that maneuver because I was reckless. We had to do it—we were trapped in the channel. Thank God for Bud Weeks who had taken the time years earlier to challenge me, teach me, and raise my level of competence. Competence creates confidence. I was the only person on the bridge that day who knew we could do this. I had to demonstrate confidence to my crew.
Your team needs to know that when things get difficult, you have done the work required to lead them through it.
Then comes the third C.
Consistency: Can I count on you tomorrow?
Trust isn’t established by one great speech, one ethical decision, or one brilliant performance. It is built through repeated behavior. People watch how you act when you’re tired. Under pressure. When the numbers are bad. When the boss is angry. When somebody on your team makes a mistake.
Are you basically the same leader on the bad day that you were on the good day? Consistency does not mean perfection. You will make mistakes. I certainly have.
Consistency means your people know what you stand for. They know you will own your mistakes. They know you will tell them the truth. They know you will keep learning. And they know you won’t suddenly abandon your values – or them – because the pressure went up.
That’s credibility. Credibility takes time to build – and seconds to damage. You cannot demand trust because you have the title. You earn it. One decision at a time. One conversation at a time. One difficult moment at a time.
Your people are always answering the question: Can I trust you?
Your consistent behavior gives them a reason to say yes. Every time.
Lead to Win Principle
Trust is earned through character, competence, and consistency. Do the right thing. Know the right thing to do. Then demonstrate both often enough that people know they can count on you.
The Question
If I asked the people you lead whether they trust your character, competence, and consistency, where do you think would you score strongest, and where do you still need to earn their trust?
Next Week: We continue our How to Win the Hearts of Your People series with Building and maintaining relationships. Title may open the door, but relationships create influence.
Want more powerful leadership lessons from Mike?
- Begin leading from the heart: Order Learn How to Lead to Win | The Manazir Maxims | Leadership Study Guide for Manazir Maxims
- Book Mike to Speak or for 1:1 Executive Coaching
P.S. Know someone trying to build up their people and lead with heart? Forward this to them. It might be the encouragement they need to keep going.
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Let’s lead to win together,
Mike Manazir
Retired Navy Rear Admiral | Bestselling Author | Keynote Speaker | Executive Coach