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Leadership & the TRUST Factor

Guest post by: Harvey Schiller

Article Overview: Trust is a gift you give, and a reward you earn. Trust is powerful as it implies a commitment by and to you. But it is also fragile. What does a leader and manager do to secure trust?

Leadership & the TRUST Factor

Relationships are based on a series of interactions and you must strive to make each interaction exceed the other person’s expectations.

Think of each interaction as depositing goodwill in a bank. You build that goodwill bank balance with each positive interaction. When a slip up occurs, as it inevitably will, then there may be a goodwill withdrawal, but the balance does not go to zero.

As a leader and manager of people creating that positive interaction and contributing to the goodwill bank is about TRUST. While trust can be demanded or expected, it doesn’t have to be given. A relationship of trust can only be established with consistent, steady and reliable performance when the “walk matches the talk’, and that the demonstrated behavior holds up over time.

To achieve TRUST, leaders and managers must:

T = TRUTH. Tell the truth as you know it

Share information openly and in a timely manner. Omitting information, glossing over uncomfortable and nasty details or distorting undermines trusts.

R = RELIABILITY. Deliver on commitments and promises

Breaking commitments and promises, unilaterally, without explanation, without renegotiating a new agreement destroys reliability and chases away trust.

U = UNITY. Create cohesive work teams

Dividing and conquering sends a strong warning signal that will lead to disastrous consequences of undermining a common and shared

S = SUPPORT. Provide assistance, coaching, mentoring

Abandoning someone who has a legitimate problem or issue eliminates the very essence of trust.

T = TALK. Communicate, communicate, and communicate

The failure to communicate and under-communicating can create a vacuum of information that undermines common understandings and goals.

To keep the lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.

-Mother Teresa

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  Leadership Development: FUD to FUN
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  INVENTORIES CAN BE MANAGE BUT PEOPLE SHOULD BE LEAD.

Article Tags: bank balance, chases, cohesive work, commitments, disastrous consequences, go to zero, goodwill, interaction, legitimate problem, nasty details, promises, reliability, rsquo, share information, span style, style text, text decoration, timely manner, trusts, warning signal
Referred by: http://www.marshallnorthcott.com



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