Let me speak directly to you. Not your team, organization, business or BOD.
What have you given up in the area of profitability and relationships because of your judgments and expectations around the meaning of trust?
In the early years of coaching, I used the following phrase “Trust is hard to define, but you know when you don’t have it”. The reason trust was so important then (and now) is that the relationship is not complete unless you can trust it and especially the results that are expected.
What happens when we stop trusting someone or their brand/product/mission?
If I could not trust my team to do well with what they do, I would be sitting in my chair right now worried about outcomes and output. I would not be creative and innovative. I would not be able to enjoy the feeling of getting a product or service done because I could not trust the persons or the process.
Being a small organization does not mean my organization has small issues. This past year has produced and attracted some doozies.
- How will we get this mess untangled and undone?
- How do we repair the technology issue caused by a major provider?
- Who knows what to do and how and when and will the results work?
- What and how do we schedule these huge and wonderful projects to work with the talent that is available?
If there was no trust, the questions would certainly not be asked this way. There would be agony around the decision of who and how work would get done and flow.
My question for you: “Who have you lost trust in, that is creating self-doubt, delay and the lessening of your profits?”
And why did you allow the trust to disappear? When did it leave? How long have you been putting up with the lack of trust in your staff, partner, team, vendor, family etc?
There is enough chaos in our lives to ever ever ever give up the sweetness of trusting a person and an outcome.
For more than 10 years I’ve advocated for the writers and thought leaders Marshall Goldsmith and Patrick Lencioni. Marshall and Patrick have advocated and coached the importance of trust. Today I add another name to this thought leader list that not only advocates for trust, but teaches a system for recognizing when and when it is not there and how to bring it back. Let me introduce David Horsager and his book “The Trust Edge”. (it has been added to our “Best Reads” list for your convenience – see the P.S. below for the link to the book).
Leaders especially need to understand their responsibility in creating trust, especially in their executive teams, staff, organizations and clients. It is all trickle down, so if your leaders (and you also) are not instilling, advocating and demonstrating trust, your effectiveness and profits will show it.
The expectations that we have of others and them not meeting those expectations, invites in the lack of trust also. Completing our SnapShot leadership, communication and behavioral performance assessments will go the whole way in letting you know who you are and whether your expectations of the world are accurate.
Be proactive for you. Find out what is working and what is not and then take action for you to begin to trust again.
To Your Success,
P.S. Expect trust. Provide trust. Invoke trust. David Horsager and his book “The Trust Edge” presents the ultimate guide to earning, maintaining and even rebuilding the most critical factor of every business (and personal) relationship – trust.
P.P.S. Visit our Snapshot page and be reminded why getting to know you, today, is worth every moment spent finding out. And you get to be personally debriefed by me