It isn’t well-known that Shakespeare wrote about IT leadership, but he did. An example, the dialog that follows, is from a lost folio of Hamlet.

Lord Polonius, senior desktop analyst for the kingdom of Denmark: “Methinks we should defenestrate William of Gates, instead commercing with Linus, Prince of the Finns. Many pounds would we save, and verily the onerous license forced upon us by William of Gates would be vanished.”

Hamlet, Prince of the Danes and Chief Information Officer: “How many pounds, good Polonius?”

Polonius: “My lord, 125 fewer would we spend, allowing us to neither borrower nor lender be.”

Hamlet: “Speak not your bromides, Polonius, until I know whether thine estimate include conversion and migration costs.”

Polonius: “These totals I have not yet computed, my lord.”

Hamlet: “Is there in our domain software that requires the platform of William of Gates?”

Polonius: “Lady Fortune’s traditions suggest we will find it so. However, in the land of Citrix, an easy journey, lies resolution.”

Hamlet: “And what debt shall we incur to Citrix’s sovereign?”

Polonius, in vexation: “My lord, thou canst pose questions that count in numbers as the stars themselves. I do acknowledge them, as you I ask to acknowledge both their number and my ableness to them resolve. Thy distrust, though, causes me distress unending.”

And so, another manager/employee relationship erodes due to conflicting expectations of trust.

The level of trust defines any relationship. The more accurately you gauge the extent you can trust others (and they you), the more effective you will be in any encounter, whether you’re assessing an employee’s recommendation, negotiating with a vendor, or establishing a curfew with one of your teenaged offspring.

Determining the appropriate level of trust is easy when two people know each other well. So Hamlet, dealing with Horatio, his longstanding advisor, might have asked, simply, “Tell me more, Horatio,” and received a succinct yet satisfactory response. Dealing with Laertes, who over the same period has proven himself lacking in both wit and initiative, Hamlet might have said, “To convert or not to convert, that is the question. Yet not the only question: We must needs review many others first, whose response we will require to know our mind.”

History has its uses. Among them is knowing how much trust is deserved, and what kind. Often, the biggest point of dispute in new relationships between managers and employees, where there is no history, is what the default should be, trust or skepticism. Many employees think managers should trust them until they demonstrate they’re undependable. Many managers act as if every employee is a thief and incompetent slacker who has to earn trust inch by inch.

If the world were binary we’d have to choose: Either trust until trust is violated or distrust until credibility is proven. The world is, luckily enough, far from binary, and good leaders have more choices than just those two, as Hamlet demonstrates in this soliloquy, his response to Lord Polonius:

Hamlet: “You ask of trust? My trust you have … to have considered these questions and more prior to this visit. What I ask of you is no more than thou shouldst have demanded of thyself in knowing thine own mind — no more. Which is as King Claudius shall demand of me as well, that I am sure of your mind and my own before an undertaking so vast as this I endorse.

“Trust? Thou has it. Or, did once. With greater clarity your visage I now observe. For your intellect my respect continues, free of doubt. Your ability to deliver answers remains also untainted in my view. It is your knowledge of the questions themselves for which my confidence is reduced and must be restored.”

Trust, that is, is neither something to bestow nor withhold automatically. It evolves through an ongoing process, to whit:

Polonius: “My liege, permit me my notion to rephrase: I beg your leave to review for the kingdom of Denmark the goods and ills of abandoning much of our trade with William of Gates, increasing instead that with Linus of Finland. Wouldst thou consider this time well spent?”

Hamlet (pleased): “I have long pondered an alliance with Prince Linus of Finland, and had wished a loyal lieutenant would offer his assistance. Develop your list of questions for our mutual review. In a fortnight we shall re-engage to your progress consider.”

See? These things don’t have to end in tragedy.