Servant leaders put their faith in the goodness of men. Using Barnabas trusting Saul as an example, inspirational speaker and best-selling author John Maxwell said leaders have to trust people, regardless of their past or their difficulty, to make a difference in their lives. Maxwell further added that true leaders are those who empower their people first then discover their worth, instead of testing their worthiness first before empowering them. Maxwell also used King David as an example who started developing an inner circle composed of those who he trusted—people like his father and those who were “misfits, the distressed, the debt-ridden and discontented”.
When I was with the Bureau of Immigration, I unconsciously followed Maxwell’s advice and gave everyone a second chance. Some put it to good use while others, unfortunately, threw it away. There was one immigration officer, a graduate of a prestigious state university, who had served his suspension and was on floating status, a marked man (X) so to speak, when I joined the bureau. Despite knowing this, I still chose X to be part of my technical staff. Some foreign counterparts were surprised to see X in my office. Upon seeing X, these well-meaning colleagues candidly narrated to me what they know about X, his misdeeds more specifically. I replied that X was my trust experiment and I have confidence in the goodness of men and believing in “second chances”. Alas, in a matter of weeks, X was implicated in an extortion attempt whereby the victim herself personally told me that she handed X wads of cash in a bag right inside the very Office of the Commissioner! Charged with an administrative case, X never reported back to work and was subsequently dropped from the rolls.
In the book Smart Trust, authors Stephen Covey and Greg Link explained three kinds of trust levels—the blind trust, the distrust and the smart trust. There is blind trust when a leader trusts everyone and the leader inevitably assumes a higher risk in the process. There is distrust when a leader trusts no one and he ends up doing all the work and accepts any and all responsibility in the process. Blind trust exposes the leader to unnecessary jeopardy, while distrust leads to inefficiency. However, when a leader trusts a few, after a careful analysis of all available information, he assumes little risk, shares responsibility and promotes productivity. This is what Covey and Link consider as smart trust—trusting subordinates combined with an appreciation of their service reputation, among others.
In any organization, service reputation is how your colleagues and peers see you taking into account what you have done in the past. I was flooded with all kinds of “background information” regarding key personnel before I entered the bureau. Hardly knowing any of my future coworkers then, I had to know what to believe and who to believe. Fortunately, my Army intelligence background helped me to evaluate the accuracy of the information, as well as the reliability of the source. Since I had to choose an insider to expedite my learning curve in bureau matters, I selected a lawyer from Pampanga to be one of my very first technical assistants as he was endorsed by a law-school classmate. Background checks revealed a few irregularities about this lawyer, but they pale in comparison with the service reputation of other lawyers endorsed to me. I can vividly remember what I told him when I ended up tapping his services—“I know what you did before. And I know you will not do it now… especially during my watch!” So I gave Atty. Vicente G. Uncad a second chance by designating him as my technical assistant. He was with me on my very first day on June 13, 2011, and on my very last day in office on January 6, 2016. More than just a colleague or a subordinate, I see him as a good friend.
Going to a more sensationalized appointment in the bureau, recently confirmed by the Commission of Appointments, Justice Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II has placed his trust in his fraternity brothers Al Argosino and Michael Robles. Both deputy commissioners of the bureau were presumably endorsed by Secretary Aguirre to President Duterte. Both deputy commissioners are now implicated in an extortion case that involved at least P50 million. Both have been sacked (or have resigned) after a very short stint in the bureau. If we were to apply Covey’s smart trust and in retrospect, I wish I used a more in-depth analysis in empowering people with shady characters in the bureau. If we were to apply Covey’s smart trust, Secretary Aguirre will probably have second thoughts in endorsing the appointment of a convict (homicide through reckless imprudence) to a sensitive post in government. In my book, 7 Attributes of Servant Leaders in Public Service, I suggested to current and future leaders to trust only a few good men (and women). For some people, like X and others like him, they are not worth getting a second chance.