For those of you who think that one day you might become a leader, we have news for you! Leadership is not a position or title, or even what you do or know-it's a way of being. Anyone can be a leader, regardless of position. It's a matter of trust.

Leadership is a complex topic, and the most surprising characteristics shared by the best leaders in the world, including Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines (SWA) and Gordon Moore of Intel, is trust. They trust themselves and they trust others.

Consider how Herb Kelleher demonstrated his trust of one of his managers. When property manager Bob Montgomery made an oral commitment of $400,000 to the City of Austin for the preliminary design of a new airport he had no idea that the airline did not support a new airport in Austin. When word of the commitment reached Kelleher, he stood behind Montgomery's word even though SWA was not legally bound by the verbal agreement.

Kelleher explains: "If we give our word, it's our word and we keep our word. It doesn't matter whom it is that gives our word. On the other hand, I did say to Bob, 'Now pal, this is a fairly expensive lesson. A $400,000 lesson--I hope you remember it!"* While other leaders might have been tempted to punish Montgomery for his mistake, Kelleher demonstrated trust: he trusted that Montgomery had learned a valuable lesson.

Gordon Moore of Intel, another captain of industry acknowledged his leadership excellence, also demonstrates deep trust for his employees. He likes to say, "One thing a leader does is to remove the stigma of mistakes." In other words, allowing people to learn through mistakes without fear of reprisals is an active demonstration of trust from a leader.

Leaders also have to trust themselves and the decisions they make. For instance, Earl Bakken, co-founder of one of the largest medical device companies in the world, follows the principle of "Ready, fire, aim." In other words, he doesn't spend all his time "aiming" and instead makes quick decisions (the "fire" part of the equation). He trusts himself to make good fast decisions, and to correct any mistakes he might make. True leaders trust themselves first so that they can trust others.

The element of trust, already so lacking in our culture in general, is even rarer among corporate leaders. And yet, it would seem that the leaders of the best and most compassionate companies in the world fuel their organizations on trust. Trust is the one humanizing factor that spells the difference between compassionate leaders like Kelleher and Moore, and greedy managers like those of Enron and Worldcom.

As Max DePree, former Chairman and CEO of Herman Miller, so eloquently expresses, "Leaders owe a covenant to the corporation or institution, which is, after all, a group of people. Leaders owe the organization a new reference point for what caring, purposeful, committed people can be in the institutional setting."

*Raymond T.Yeh with Stephanie H. Yeh. 2004. The Art of Business, Zero Time Publishing, Olathe, Colorado.