Walking around the lake talk…… by Tip & Mak
As leaders,
we’re expected to attract and retain top talents, engage our people, collaborate, execute key goals and deliver great results. But we can’t truly collaborate with people you don’t trust—or who don’t trust us. We might be able to merely coordinate, but you won’t be able to truly collaborate. Similarly, nothing disengages people like not being trusted, while nothing engages people like a high-trust culture—the ultimate driver of engagement. Trust can be a Performance Multiplier or the Invisible Barrier.
Since we all know the importance of Trust,
but why we see many relations are paying the high tax of trust today? Do we really see the importance of trust? Do we have the right paradigm about how to grow, restore and extend trust? In every low trust relationship, normally who do we think is the problem? We think it’s the other party. If we think others are the problem, then we disempower ourselves and feel we have no power and can do nothing about it. So we just hope and wait for others to improve and get better or leave it as it is.
In many relationships,
whether it’s with a colleague, a friend, or even a life partner, after knowing each other for a period of time, especially with people we are not comfortable with, slowly we form our own perceptions of each of them which finally create our own invisible barrier walls with each and every one of them. Many such perceptions can be wrong or not accurate which finally turn into our negative behaviors towards them. And they, on seeing our actions, will also begin to reflect such negative behaviors towards us. This ding dong behaviors will then reaffirm the invisible barriers towards each other. This, in turn, will have very huge impact on the level of trust in that relationship.
If we really care about the relationship,
and we really want to improve the level of trust with that person, and we can see ourselves as part of the problem, then we can do something to improve that relationship. Trust starts with ourselves. Leaders who consistently put their best effort to build and grow trust with the person who tests them the most, will leverage the incredible dividends of high trust. And, they will be able to do everything better, faster, for less cost, and with greater engagement and fun along the way. As Stephen M. R. Covey said: “It’s trust that turns a group of people into a team. It’s trust that turns a vendor into a true partner. It’s trust that creates a strong brand with loyal customers.”
Our conclusion: The ability to create trust is the critical leadership competency needed today because it makes us better at everything else we need to do as a leader.
(Read more detail information from the book “The Speed of Trust” of Stephen M. R. Covey or view Speed of Trust program page.)
