Building trust at the beginning of a new leadership role

The nature of public sector management and leadership is changing. To address whole-of-government and whole-of-society challenges, public sector organizations are exploring more collaborative forms of leadership (Alford and Hughes, 2008; Getha-Taylor, 2008). Leadership, particularly at senior levels, is becoming more about influencing across boundaries, taking broader and more multiple perspectives and about recognizing and integrating complexity (Hooijberg and Schneider, 2001; Karp and Helgø, 2008). And in public organizations in particular, there are increasing demands for transparency and high ethical standards from leaders.