Faced with the intense pressures of military life, soldiers must build trust with their teammates and leaders, a senior leader told a group of about 100 young officers and NCOs during the Association of the U.S. Army’s LANPAC Leadership Forum.

“We build trust because we have a common threat, a common problem we have to solve together,” said retired Maj. Gen. Suzanne Puanani Vares-Lum, director of the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies.

Speaking May 14 during a keynote presentation to start the second day of the forum, Vares-Lum encouraged the company-grade leaders to take time from their busy schedules to reflect on the importance of trust—and the importance of building bonds with their soldiers and teammates.

“It’s so important that we invest in you,” Vares-Lum said. “Many of you are very busy. You’re all running at a pace in which you don’t even have time sometimes to think you deserve a moment to think and reflect on leadership. But what is your role in this strategic competition? You are critical.”

Held in conjunction with AUSA’s LANPAC Symposium and Exposition in Honolulu, the LANPAC Leadership forum was organized and hosted by the association’s Center for Leadership.

With the theme of “Building Trust Within Units and with Allies and Partners in the Indo-Pacific,” the forum aims to professionally develop and inspire leaders and engage allies and partners from across the Indo-Pacific.

In addition to hearing from Vares-Lum, forum participants heard from senior Army leaders including Lt. Gen. Joel Vowell, deputy commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific, and leaders from the 11th Airborne Division, the 25th Infantry Division and Army Human Resources Command.

Forum participants also heard from Marcus Holmes and Matt Newcomb, experts from the William & Mary Whole of Government Center of Excellence, during a workshop titled “Leading in a Dynamic World: Effective Strategies for Building Trust in Cross-Cultural Environments.”

“Our participants are already strong, emerging leaders who are on a path to continued development, so I hope we offered them something that helps them get to that next level,” said Cynthia Gertsen, senior program manager for AUSA’s Center for Leadership and lead planner for the LANPAC Leadership Forum. “I hope they gained a new understanding about trust-building and leadership, and I hope we were able to expose them to a diversity of perspectives they wouldn’t get otherwise.”

During her keynote, Vares-Lum encouraged forum participants to share their stories about leadership, facing stress during training or deployments and lessons they’ve learned along the way.

Moments of stress, in particular, demonstrate why soldiers need each other, Vares-Lum said. “Those moments of stress are what define us as leaders, and that’s when we can build trust or break trust,” she said.

She also encouraged the young leaders to be humble and exercise patience and mutual respect, particularly across cultures when working with allies and partners.

At the end of the day, she said, it’s important for soldiers to have trust relationships and be able to share their stories. “We want to know that we’ve done our best,” she said.