Trust frees you to take creative risks.
Talking with my son today about avant garde composers across the 20th century, we discussed Ives’ The Unanswered Question, atonal music generally, and Cage’s 4’33”. He rightly pointed out that if he were to write these pieces, he would not be praised but criticized. I confirmed that if I had turned in a composition that consisted entirely of silence to my composition professor, I would have rightly failed.
The experiments, the creative risks, the boundary pushing that artists can take are directly proportional to the trust they have engendered with their audience. Without the trust, you can’t take the risks.
The same is true of leadership. You can only leap as far as those you lead trust you to go. Without trust, you’ll never inspire others to go very far.