YVONNE'S TAKE: Trust - The only currency in leadership

Trust is invisible, but when it's gone, you feel it everywhere.

There’s a question I’ve heard whispered often, in boardrooms, in buses, on back channels and breakfast shows. It usually goes something like: Why are things different now? Why is the public more restless, more sceptical, more confrontational, especially toward leadership?

But perhaps the question is itself an answer. Because what we’re dealing with here isn’t just criticism. It’s a crisis of trust.

Public trust is a kind of currency. It has no shape, no print, no watermark. But it’s what gives value to leadership, just like a banknote only works if people believe in the system behind it. Trust is what makes a signature on paper carry weight. What makes institutions function? What turns words into policy? What makes a leader’s voice mean more than just sound?

A government may have the legal mandate to lead. But legitimacy? That lives in the hearts of the people. And when people no longer believe, no longer feel heard or represented, the value of that leadership begins to decline, like currency in a broken economy.

Throughout history, communities have used all kinds of currency: gold coins, cowrie shells, salt, and even sticks. The form never mattered as much as the trust behind it. The understanding that this is something we value, something we honour, something we can exchange and depend on.

It doesn’t hold power just because of votes cast or positions won, but because of a social contract that says: we believe you will act in our interest. That your power serves a purpose beyond yourself. And when that contract is broken, the consequences are rarely loud, at first. But they build up. From quiet murmurs to quiet withdrawals. From doubt to disengagement and sometimes manifest in the form of protest.

So maybe the better question isn’t why this generation is different.

Because here’s the thing: trust can be rebuilt. But never through force. Not through optics. Not through reminders of who holds office. Trust returns only when leadership changes course, when it listens more than it defends, explains more than it accuses, and sacrifices more than it demands.

In the end, titles may give you a position. But only trust gives you power.

When the people stop believing, that power, like currency with no backing, begins to fade.