Why Trust Is the Foundation of Great Leadership and Effective Problem-Solving

For five years, I led all US House oversight investigations into our departments of Defense, Justice, State, NASA, and other federal agencies. One day, I got a call from Pax River, where pilots test our newest planes. The Navy’s F/A 18 E was being redesigned to be bigger, with longer legs, and more capable. But the “Super Hornet” –  had a problem. The naval aviation leaders trusted me, so they called.

Trust is everything. If you are a leader, whether of a family,  company, or in government, whether in program management, design, machining, or just oversight – trust defines the relationship. Build trust so that your team so that those you are leading will come to you early with problems.

Years later, my life took me to service as an Assistant Secretary of State under former National Security Advisor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General, and Secretary Colin Powell. He used to say: “Bad news, unlike wine, doesn’t get better with time.”  So, get the bad news early, ask and act on it.

The lesson is not just for corporate or government leaders. It actually applies in all contexts – big and small, whether open to hearing a family member’s concerns, a child’s worry, a brewing problem, or alertness to changes in machinery, hard shifts, squeaky brakes, flickering lights, or balding tires.

Those last four might mean low fluids or a transmission about to go, then a need to change brake pads or rotors, an alternator about to fail, and a need for new tires – all keys to safety. The same is true in leading large organizations or conducting oversight. Knowing the problems early is good, not bad.

As an oversight leader, investigator, staff director, counsel, and guy probing darkness for problems – I was not a “gotcha guy,”  not interested in scoring points, just fixing problems. The Navy called me.

“What’s the issue?” I asked. There was a “slight problem” with aerodynamics around the new F/A 18 plane. I needed to go to Pax River, take a look, get the brief, and understand it. I promptly went down.

The issue, as they explained it to me, had to do – odd but true – with the reality that we know less about aerodynamics than we all think. We have the basics down, rules of physics, and get data from wind tunnels, but until you get into the cockpit and fly new hardware, you do not know how it works.

Long story short: Test pilots discovered the F/A 18 “Super Hornet” design – the new two-seater version – had a “wing wobble” issue. The wobble showed up at the worst time, in high-G turns at close range, when pulling the nose up to put guns on an enemy aircraft … in a dogfight.

Obviously, it had to be fixed. With political pressure high, pilots and leadership were concerned about the time needed to find the fix. I understood, listened to options, and gave them time.

In a matter of weeks, they had the answer. Instead of the mess created by not owning up, not reporting this aerodynamic problem, somehow minimizing it, imagining it would go away, they trusted me to understand – to grasp the magnitude and also trust they could fix it. I did both.

Ironically, that trusting relationship, all of us being on one page, looking for the truth, knowing we all wanted this fighter in the fleet, appreciating that nothing good is easy, got us quickly to an answer.

Interestingly, the “wing wobble” got fixed aerodynamically by putting a triangle of pin holes at the end of each wing, which – in the mystifying world of physics and aerodynamics – ended the wobble.

Trust, openness to hearing about problems – wanting to hear about them – and then solving them, is vital to effective leadership at all levels, personal, private sector, and government.

Funny footnote: A few months later, I get another call from Pax River, test pilot leadership. They have another problem. The pin holes that solved the “wing wobble” created an aerodynamic change that – in turn – started a “buffet problem,” pilots bumping their heads on the canopy every few miles.

The process now well in place, trust a given, they got time to remedy that one, did, and the F/A18 entered the fleet as one of the most effective fighters ever to grace a carrier deck in 1999. Truth is worth knowing, worth asking for early. When it comes hard, be glad, get on it, solve it, and move on.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!