A leader who is not trusted is not a leader

Towards the end of the day when I was weary from listening to all the speakers on what makes a good leader in crisis, Cheche Lazaro, the moderator of the discussion, asked former Mayor Rudy Giuliani a question from the floor. I don’t have the exact words of the question but it asked the former NYC mayor what must be done if you have lost trust in your leader.

The mayor’s answer was quick and simple: “Change your leader.” The mayor explained that a leader who is not trusted is not a leader.

That makes sense. A leader who is not trusted will have no followers and a leader with no followers is only imagining himself to be a leader.

I don’t know if the one who asked the question had his or her company in mind, in which case he or she should probably resign and look for a boss he or she can trust. Or, the one who asked the question could have been a CEO who was wondering what to do with one of his managers who seem to have lost the trust of his staff. In this case, he should reassign or fire the ineffective manager.

But I know what was going on in my mind and in the minds of many of those in the audience because the crowd clapped when Giuliani said, “Change your leader.” We were thinking of Ate Glue and her latest Pulse Asia trust ratings. About one in two Filipinos or 53 percent had “small or no trust” in her.

How can anyone who is supposed to be the leader of a nation run that nation with a majority of the people distrustful of her. Giuliani stressed the importance of trusting the leaders to steer the country out of a crisis. “Trust is the first part of leadership in a democracy,” he said.

Pulse Asia conducted its survey from July 1 to 14, and the figures “do not differ significantly” from the 51-percent disapproval rating and the 57-percent distrust rating that the President scored in its March 2008 survey. Anything she does is examined for ulterior motives by a cynical constituency. For example, 35 percent said the pro-poor programs were part of “politicking” for the 2010 elections. The survey firm polled 1,200 respondents nationwide.

“Disapproval for presidential performance and distrust in President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo remain the predominant public sentiment with almost one out of every two Filipinos (48%) being critical of President Arroyo’s performance and a small majority (53%) distrusting her,” Pulse Asia said.

Actually, her low trust rating is largely her fault. Take that blunder with the supposed lowering of text message rate. Ate Glue was too eager to claim credit for that to the point that she left out important conditions about the story. As it turned out, the telcos had an approved promo to last for three months. It also applies only to pre-paid subscribers, who must also first register and buy P20 worth of load before the discount can be effective. Postpaid subscribers of high end plans are already enjoying that discount anyway.

Ate Glue ended up disappointing the masa who found out what their Ate Glue said was neither automatic nor accurate. Interviewed by the evening newscasts, they expressed disgust at having been misled to believe something that is not just there as their Ate Glue implied in her SONA. The text message announcement makes the SONA, a Sana, as in SANA lang pala yun. The text message fiasco is actually small potatoes as important policy matters of state go but iconic of her time as President.

Ate Glue should have read Giuliani’s book on Leadership before she delivered her SONA. She would have at least known about the mayor’s rule to “underpromise and overdeliver.” The opposite is often true in Ate Glue’s administration.

This lack of trust is also at the bottom of why there is a general reluctance on the part of the public to accept Ate Glue’s insistence on VAT. I agree with her and have taken the position that we cannot make a drastic U-turn on VAT without courting serious international financial consequences for our economy. As I tried to analyze the objections that stubbornly refuse to go away, I found lack of trust in Ate Glue as the primary reason.

Even those who are ready to agree with her that VAT should stay for the country’s long term economic good, they are worried that Ate Glue will misappropriate the money. People are not ready to give her the benefit of the doubt that the money will be well spent. Pinoys have been burned before with Ate Glue’s way of spending tax money in ways that do not redound to the national good.

The corruption index of Ate Glue’s administration is also pretty high. There are too many unresolved cases of scandalous misappropriation of public funds, like the JocJoc Bolante scandal. The attempt to make generations of Pinoys pay for the corruption tainted NBN deal, North Railways, etc leave little reason for people to trust her to do what is right with VAT money to be collected.

Indeed, early this year, the Philippines has been perceived by foreign businessmen as Asia’s most corrupt economy based on the results of a regional poll conducted by a Hong Kong-based group, Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) on 1,400 expatriate businessmen last January and February this year.

What can Filipinos do? Mr. Giuliani made this simple rule on how Filipinos should choose the next leader. “Figure out which one you can trust most for the future of your country,” Giuliani said. Filipinos may be in disagreement... “but who do you trust the most? Who do you think is closest to what you want for the future of your country?”

Giuliani’s hour-long talk about “Leadership in Times of Crisis,” also stressed a leader must be trusted to hold on to his or her words, whether in politics, in business, or in other endeavors. “Your word in life is the most important thing you have, whether in business or in politics. To be able to accomplish things, you have to be known as a person of your word. If you make a deal, you’ve got to stick with it, whether it’s a good one or a bad one,” Giuliani explained.

Here is one other area where a true leader of our people can score big if he or she wants to: fight corruption. When asked by our editor, Amy Pamintuan about the issue of corruption in the country, Giuliani replied, “No one wants to do business in a place with a great deal of corruption.” He must be saying that the best investment incentives law means nothing to prospective investors if the country’s bureaucracy and society is seen as corrupt.

This brings up Giuliani’s other leadership rule: “Everyone’s accountable, all of the time.”

Ayoko na! Giuliani’s lecture was pure torture and not just because it costs an arm and both legs to attend it. Luckily for me, Boss Miguel Belmonte was gracious enough to positively respond to my request for a ticket. But I got a strong feeling during the day long event that the wrong people are listening to his common sense leadership rules.

While the corporate top brass would surely benefit from the Giuliani lecture, it was more urgent for you-know-who to hear it from him. Too bad Giuliani’s visit was sponsored by Mayor Jojo Binay’s Foundation and you-know-who wouldn’t have graced the occasion even if she were invited.

Ay naku! What a country! We have a surplus of politicians but a scarcity of leaders. We import and pay a bundle for a leadership expert to come and lecture but the one who needs it most was not even there. Giuliani’s show was expensive entertainment…unless it would spur our so-called leaders to grab his book, learn from it, and show some leadership at long last.

 Depressing economy

“I’m a walking economy,” a man was overheard to say.

“My hairline’s in recession, my waist is a victim of inflation, and together they’re putting me in a deep depression.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]