Trust in the Marketplace
Trust in the workplace is traced back to the leader creating a safe atmosphere where people can express themselves and be known.
Last week I received an email from one of our client’s key team leaders. She wanted me to know that she was thinking of quitting because the work environment had become so toxic. The CEO knew he had team issues because key employees, like the one above, were stressed and performance was dropping. Excellent employees were forgetting to complete tasks and, frankly, were failing miserably. Word simply spread throughout the team that one of the leaders was no longer safe; one of the leaders changed the atmosphere from a place of self-expression and being known, to an atmosphere of dread. Employees shut down and gritted their teeth. Alone, one leader hi-jacked trust; he became the enemy.
When this recently hired executive arrived, he exuded a helpful demeanor and professionalism. But no one knew what to make of his sudden outbursts and overt displays of anger when his iPad wouldn’t work or a printer wouldn’t print. Under frustration, he would crack. The team avoided him not knowing when his unpredictable outburts would occur. The employee who emailed me had been the uncomfortable object of his wrath and dreaded coming to work from that time, she admitted.
In the years I’ve been coaching and mentoring CEO’s I’ve seen amazing demonstrations of trust and the impact the highest-level ranking leader can make. Trust in the workplace is traced back to the leader creating a safe atmosphere where people can express themselves and be known. We scheduled a team-building workshop for this particular CEO and his executive team. Our afternoon started with a team game that predictably surfaced certain attitudes and behaviors among the members. This team struggled to complete the game as angry and mean directives surfaced. Eventually, other team members shut down; we watched the tension build right before our eyes. Then something amazing happened. It occurred to the CEO during the game that the biggest problem facing his team was a lack of safety and ownership and, by extension, a pervasive sense of distrust. So the CEO said, “We aren’t having success here and I think it is my fault. I’m the worst at this game. Why don’t I trade places with someone so we can see if that helps?” When he owned what the entire team was experiencing, even though he wasn’t the source of the tension, we saw his team transform.
We watched as people immediately began to relax and communicate. The angry offender softened and took some responsibility for his actions. Overall communication improved for the team, even to the point of problem solving, successfully completing the game. That humble and positive move by the CEO created safety. An amazing team dialogue and training time led to confession and apologies among the members. Early the next afternoon, I received an email from the employee who threatened to quit her job. “I’ve just had one of the best days at work, ever,” she wrote. “I am highly encouraged!” Where does an organization really begin in developing trust? Does safety make a difference in building trust?
It is foundational.
I Googled the topic of trust in business and found a plethora of articles and postings. My search yielded at least 20 titles in Amazon for business or relationship books on trust. I am led to believe that trust must be a hot topic. The Wall Street scandal caused by Bernie Madoff has not helped, nor has the broad financial crisis caused by those taking advantage of the trust we once had in the banking and financial institutions. Old school business practices were once rooted in “your word is your bond” and employment for life. Now employees know that everything is temporary while job security is as flimsy as the next economic downturn.
Are we as a society less trusting today than 30 or 50 years ago? I don’t find any evidence there’s been an erosion of trust. But I still ask myself, “has cynicism replaced trust in the workplace and the fabric of our social culture?” The divorce rate might be an indicator that our society lacks sufficient trust to heal our own marriages and persevere through inevitable tough times. Without sufficient safety to develop trust we quit, or worse, stay and give up. In workshops I’ve led and research I’ve conducted it is easy to see that each of us comes into the workplace with a carnival of experiences with trust. People who have abuse in their past struggle with trust and others who don’t have that experience cannot understand the reluctance and caution others have in being trusting. Developing greater levels of trust seems mysterious to most and sheer willpower is not strong enough to permeate the work culture if trust is missing.
Here are the facts I know about trust:
● We each have had trust broken at one time or another
● Broken trust is unique, therefore, building trust requires dialogue
● Trust is fragile and takes effort, even practice, to maintain
● Trust is organic, meaning it can grow over time if nurtured
● Trust cannot exist if we don’t see ourselves clearly and make adjustments
● The highest ranking leader has the greatest influence in creating safe spaces so trust can grow
Trust is dependent on safety. What is needed so you can be more trusting? Or what is needed so you could feel safe, allowing for more transparency?
In leadership, love works.
This message was written on Good Friday, the religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death on a cross.
What is good about Good Friday? Judging by the legacy of his leadership impact two thousand years later, Jesus is probably the most successful leader of all time; yet, on Good Friday he is at the lowest point of his leadership career. Falsely accused, publicly humiliated and sentenced to death — Jesus looked like a tragic failure for a leader. The vision he cast to his followers over the previous three years didn’t seem to match these circumstances. Equally disturbing, only one of his 12 closest followers turned up to support him at this most difficult time. Why is this good?
It may seem odd to talk about leadership and love in the same breath. In business leadership such a notion may seem unprofessional. Leaders who value love may not seem to have respect in the boardroom, let alone on the manufacturing floor.
Do you regard being loving as a sign of weakness? Our leadership reality is that there is a significant precedent: Love impacts the bottom line.
In my 23 years of executive coaching I’ve found myself saying “I love people into high performance” and have at times questioned the marketability of that language. However, I see evidence all around that love in the workplace is profitable on many fronts. Just last night I was at a University of Portland business school Hall of Fame induction where the speaker; former U of P graduate and company president Fedele Bauccio; openly talked about loving his employees as the key to the successful business culture of his Bon Appetit Management Company. His company now operates more than 400 cafes and serves more than 80 million meals a year and now serves the Starbucks corporation offices in Seattle.
Is being loving a weakness in business? Consider the most famous and highly respected leaders of the past—what was their motivation? Were they acting selfishly on their own behalf or were they subordinating themselves to those they were leading serving them with courage and heart? Love, honor and respect are at the core of great leadership. The evidence is all around us, but are we willing to consider it? Further, can we even imagine applying it in our role as business leaders?
Can love live in the boardroom?
Understanding why Good Friday is called good is the same as seeing why love works in leadership. Digging deeper into Christ’s actions helps us recognize the power of a leader’s love.
The night before he died, at the lowest point in his leadership career, Jesus met with his followers for a meal.
He knew three years of leadership preparation was about to end and others would need to step up. Can you relate? You have probably faced moments of leadership truth like this where what you say and do as a leader is critical.
What did he do? He performed the lowest of all jobs in the household to make a point. He washed his followers’ feet. He demonstrated the highest level of leadership exists in serving others. He then said: “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.”
Is this the challenge we face when considering love as a key leadership principle? Are we afraid to humble ourselves and model what leadership is really about? Transparently demonstrating our love for others?
Want to learn how to convert love to business results? Join us on Tuesday the 17th for Leadership Results 365 and Communicating for Results in the afternoon. Then join us for The Way of Wealth on Saturday morning the 21st.
The Importance of Leadership Maintenance
How do you maintain your leadership edge? Is it time for a spring tune-up?
Last weekend the spring delivery of bark dust arrived for our yard. I scaled the order back from two units last year to a unit and a half this year. Still looks like a lot. Last year the pile stayed in our driveway for months. Not because I wasn’t diligent, in fact I spent almost every weekend clearing weeds and spreading bark dust. I finally hired help to get it done. It was more time consuming than I had anticipated. It was a huge job but when we were done the yard looked great!
I am learning. This year I’ve started pulling weeds earlier, and while they’re still small.
Spreading bark dust is good prevention for weeds and doing it early makes a huge difference. It is still hard work, but I am envisioning that mountain of bark dust moved within the next two weeks and enjoying both my driveway and the yard longer.
Isn’t it similar to maintaining your leadership capacity? Are you aware of the weeds that can sprout in your behavior as CEO or executive? Those habits you are still battling that hamper your ultimate success? How about the changes that have occurred in your business or in people that you aren’t skillfully addressing? Keeping up on the latest insights about how to lead your organization and how to best utilize talent within your organization?
Let me encourage you to think about maintenance of your leadership capacity as one of the best investments you can make. We maintain our yards because we want our home and gardens to look their best. Maintenance of your leadership capacity will allow you to make your greatest positive impact where it is needed.
Here are some maintenance tips from V2A Solutions:
1. Recognize that your best leadership performance comes as the result of practice, just as a professional athlete continues to work on the fundamentals your investment in staying sharp through training and coaching makes a difference. Be conscious about sharpening your skills.
2. Pause and take time to reflect on the leadership impact you want to make this year and seek out training, coaching, or even visiting a leader you admire for insights and inspiration for what you can do to accomplish your outcome objectives.
3. Consider signing up for training or a professional conference and go with a colleague so you can share rides, ideas, and learning practices together. Executives tend to isolate and leadership is a social practice. There is strength and confidence in numbers. Don’t go it alone.
Here are some important leadership maintenance choices offered by V2A Solutions:
• If you haven’t signed up for our regular newsletters you can do so here. You will be notified of updates and other goodies if you are a regular newsletter subscriber. Register now at the right.
• Consider attending the Leadership Results 365, High Performance Teamwork, or Communicating for Results workshops if you haven’t already. You can even get a discount for a refresher class. Each time we run these workshops they get better and graduates know how to best leverage their core nature and use their leadership and management talents with greater skill.
• Check out our new Remarkable Freedom Series of workshops. We are adding experts to the V2A Solutions team who bring their expertise combined with the Vision to Action Leadership™ concepts to bring increased freedom and joy to every aspect of your life. April 21st we are hosting: The Way of Wealth Workshop. Check it out.
Tell us what’s on your mind and how we can best help you. Visit our survey area and let us know what you need most to bring your vision into reality.
Be encouraged,
Larry
Your Most Powerful Influence: Current Relationships
Early on, I became a student of human nature. In my study, I saw the individual power one relationship can wield. In my experience the people we lead can actually impact us as leaders.
When I think of a powerful relationship that influenced my career and character as a business person, I am reminded of Doug Crane. Doug was my first coaching client and the person who helped shape the course of my consulting practice 22 years ago. While I was working as marketing manager for a thriving software company in the 80s, I hired Doug to help me market our software. I observed and admired the way Doug motivated others while building a successful business. As I shared my experience with Doug his feedback inspired more ideas. Ultimately, Doug’s presence in my life was the catalyst for leaving corporate job security and hanging my shingle as Briggs Consulting in 1989.
Once I launched my consulting business, Doug hired me to help him build shared vision within his company. As Doug unfolded his vision I came alongside him to help cast this vision and share it in such a way that it inspired those he led. As Doug trusted my counsel about leading others, he put those words into action with highly successful results. I may have been the most surprised by how successfully the V2A principles worked!
What did I believe qualified me for the task of helping Doug succeed?
I learned from my failures.
From my failures came my best lessons learned. Winston Churchill reminds us that “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” My enthusiasm for Doug’s success fueled my leadership ideas. From these lessons I crafted the foundations of my Vision to Action leadership model (V2A).
Young emerging leaders often confess their confusion as to what leadership really is: is it only burdensome and frustrating? Is it only for the truly gifted? What makes leadership doable? I remember wrestling with these questions in my childhood. I was the oldest of nine children and the role of “leadership” was thrust upon me. Not only did my siblings resent my leadership skills, I resented the responsibility and struggled with what “leadership” represented. Early on, I became a student of human nature. In this study, I saw the individual power one relationship can wield. As a growing professional in the leadership business, I experienced that power in one important relationship.
From Doug I learned three things about the power of influence and success in business:
Leaders are people who make things happen. Early in my coaching engagement with Doug, he hired me to help develop a shared vision for his company – to fully align his people with concepts. Can you imagine the confidence that gave me as a leader knowing how much he trusted me with his employees? From the beginning of our relationship, we both made things happen allowing the discovery process to remain. Making things happen didn’t mean we insisted on our own perspectives and agendas — that would be one-dimensional. Ours was a relationship where our views were tested and retested and tried until both of us landed on what works. Doug gave me the real world test of an idea that I had hoped would change the way leadership was done.
The result of my coaching enabled Doug to fully embrace his natural gifts as a leader. He now trusted his true leader nature. What he said matched what he would do. Doug understood this leadership process and I watched his business develop, thrive and grow.
Leaders choose to embrace their role. When Doug and I talked over several breakfasts, I realized I had a choice to make. His responses to my ideas fueled me to put them into action. As Doug aligned these business concepts with his team, the floodgates opened up for both of us. The more I chose to embrace my role, the more the principles developed that would later become part of the Vision to Action leadership model. As Doug’s company grew, I created what would later become principles for Visionary Leadership. Great leaders need a lot of support and we were committed to this high standard; once I realized what Doug was after and he captured what I was after, we embraced our separate leadership roles and never looked back.
Leaders see their current relationships as their reality. Doug was my current reality in 1990. Although I was coaching him, when I focused on him and his needs, when I lived in the present with him, both of our futures were impacted. The whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Once I launched my consulting business, Doug hired me to help him build shared vision with his company. So I came on board to help him take the vision he had and place it in the minds and hearts of his employees. Great leaders are continually learning to cast vision ~ “without a vision, people will perish,” reads a well-known Proverb. When your leadership is frustrating you and you are in dire need of direction, seek out your current reality relationships and recast vision with them. It may just change the course of your life.
Who are your current relationships? Do you see yourself learning from those who are in your charge? Can you see where your team can lead you, too?
