I’m from the government, and I’m here to help you.
Trust me.
We hear words like this from political candidates all the time. And while political candidates understand that saying a few empty words about trust might help you decide to cast your vote for them versus the other candidates, the ideas of building trust are usually set aside in some out-of-sight location once a candidate is elected, only to resurface during the next campaign season.
This system has resulted in survey after survey showing that politicians are among the least trusted occupations in our society.
In other words, we have no place to go but up.
When it comes to electing leadership for our community, there are three components of this elusive ideal called trust: ability, focus and emphasis, and integrity.
Ability is the technical knowledge to understand how to address problems, formulate proposed solutions, and identify side effects. A person may have all the goodwill and honesty in the world, but if they do not have technical capability, there’s one thing you can trust, and that is they will not be helpful in implementing solutions.
This is particularly important as issues present themselves in our state. When we last voted in 2018, we didn’t know anything about COVID-19, and we never thought to ask what kind of leadership we would see if a policeman in Minneapolis applied an over-the-top use of force that ended with a tragic and unnecessary death. But the leadership we voted in then is forming our policy to react to these major crisis issues now.
Focus and emphasis, in a political sense, relates to how a leader sees issues and which voices get through the loudest. If you take an issue such as “should we raise taxes to raise teacher pay”? from the point of view of a teacher, it’s a straightforward path to say that’s a good idea. From a taxpayer point of view, maybe not so much.
Our community is a collection of people from many different viewpoints. We have environmentalists and we have industrialists. We have labor union members, and we have business owners and managers. We have religious adherents, and we have atheists.
Each of these component groups has a unique viewpoint as to “what’s best” as far as government policy. Politicians have become very good at identifying groups and trying to pander to topics of importance to get votes.
Integrity can simply be thought of as doing what you say you are going to do. However, in a political sense, it is sometimes more complex than that. Legislators do not make laws in a vacuum, and sometimes legislation has both desirable and undesirable parts to it. In these cases, legislators often must vote for things that might not align with campaign promises or stated positions on issues.
Sometimes compromise, coupled with lack of communication and understanding, can bring about a perception of dishonesty. Other times, well, let’s face it…. politicians have been known to outright lie a time or two.
It is a combination of these three things that comprise whether a politician scores well on the trust scale. If we feel our elected officials are intelligent problem-solvers, focused on us and consistent with our understanding of their important issues, we can build a level of trust.
As the election nears, many politicians will approach you and ask for your vote. Regardless of your positions on issues, I hope you evaluate candidates for these three things – ability, focus and integrity. If voters can elect candidates that rank highly in these areas, we can take a step forward towards building trust in the public sector.