Leadership Trust: Build It, Keep It

WHAT IS TRUST?

At its core, trust is an assurance that lets people manage risk in their relationships with others. As a decision mechanism, trust frees people to work closely together, and a lack of trust keeps reminding them to remain guarded. People seldom even think about the role trust plays when they interact with others—until some element of risk emerges in those relationships. When leaders take charge of how they deal with trust in everyday personal interactions, they gain control over a powerful tool for moving their initiatives forward, enhancing their collaborative efforts, and improving execution across their organizations.

Think about a time when you simply could not trust someone or were uncomfortable sharing responsibility for an important project with him or her. Write a few brief notes on the following questions:

What was the situation in which the lack of trust emerged?

What did this person do to fail to win your trust? What was your history with him or her?

What did this lack of trust feel like to you?

JENNA’S JOURNEY: Part One

From Jenna’s perspective, every team meeting was the same. Eighty percent of the time was spent complaining or blaming, and the rest of the time was spent just inching along on the project until things reached crisis stage. Jenna didn’t want to transfer to another division and disrupt her learning or her career, but something had to be done. As she made notes about her team experiences, some issues—both positive and negative—emerged:

Positives

•  Simulating projects

•  Learning opportunities across the division

•  New experiences to advance her career

Negatives

•  Lack of productivity during team meetings

•  Poor or incomplete work results from some team members

•  Lack of support from the manager

•  Conflicting work priorities among team members

•  Need to work in crisis mode too often

Jenna shared these issues with the team in hopes that opening the negatives up for discussion would lead to an interest in solving them. She was wrong. The team members spent the rest of the discussion talking about whose challenges were greatest and how things never changed. When Jenna asked if they could take these issues