Trust Across America-Trust Around the World™

Welcome to TRUSTGiving 2014, our first annual weeklong trust awareness campaign.  Join the Alliance of Trustworthy Business Experts as we help our readers navigate the complexities of trust. During the week we will be blogging (several times a day) and posting on Twitter #TrustGiving2014.

Bob Vanourek is a former CEO of 5 firms. What happened when he got fired?

When I was in my late-20’s, I was CEO of a small company owned by a venture-capital firm in California that had hired me. We had a great run over a few years, taking the firm from $1 million in revenue to almost $4 million, and I was hoping we might “go public.”

Then I was told by the venture capitalists that they had sold the firm to a larger company. I was shocked. After the sale, I had a chip on my shoulder, which showed in my behavior at the new firm. I was a pain-in-the butt.

One day the Group VP to whom I reported arrived in town and fired me. What an embarrassment in the small town where we lived. No outplacement services in those days. I was just out. 

One of my direct reports was named CEO, and I learned my officers had all been interviewed for my job before I was canned. How untrustworthy they had been.

Then I heard a radio jingle:

“Love many; trust few; and always paddle your own canoe.”

“That’s me,” I said. People betrayed me, so, I’ll trust few.

I operated that way for a while but soon realized, when I showed I didn’t trust people, then they didn’t trust me. As my friends, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner say, leaders go first.

To lead, I had to regain a positive attitude and extend trust first. 

Bob Vanourek is the former CEO of five firms from a start-up to a billion dollar NY stock exchange turnaround. He is an organizational consultant and is one of Trust Across America’s Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior. He is the co-author of the award-winning book Triple Crown Leadership: Building Excellent, Ethical, and Enduring Organizations. www.triplecrownleadership.com

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

Copyright 2014 Next Decade, Inc.

Welcome to TRUSTGiving 2014, our first annual weeklong trust awareness campaign.  Join the Alliance of Trustworthy Business Experts this week as our members help our readers navigate the complexities of trust. Over the next seven days we will be blogging (several times a day) and posting on Twitter #TrustGiving2014.

Holly Latty-Mann shares some thoughts below. Check back at the end of the week for the second segment of Holly’s Trust and Company Meetings Part 2.

Part I: Trust-Building Activities to Incorporate in Company Meetings

(an excerpt from our upcoming book, Trust Inc., 52 Weeks of Activities & Inspirations for Building Workplace Trust)

Weekly meetings, whether management or departmental, offer prime opportunities to create and build both trust and cohesion between and among all team members. By applying what cognitive psychologists refer to as the primary and recency effects, people tend to remember the first and final activities of meetings. As such, it is important to begin and end team meetings in a way that promotes a trust with far-reaching ripple effects.

Although not necessary, ideally the one who sets the agenda for weekly meetings is the one with the greatest opportunity to introduce activities designed to create a team culture of trust. The following represents a tried-and-true approach by the author of this blog.    

Create a Brief Checking-In Activity to Start the Meeting: 

►Announce you’d like to start your meeting with a quick, casual “checking-in round,” in which everyone has a chance to share anything of interest going on in his or her life – or pass.

►Rather than offer examples, consider going first in order to provide a model of appropriate self-disclosing. Examples can include family vacation or the angst one feels with one’s teenage child getting a permit to drive, or discovering rock climbing as a favorite pastime.

►Occasionally bring in a prop or picture as an adult version of show-and-tell, something designed to promote some levity or a relaxed demeanor.

►Although it is important to keep it brief, it’s also important not to be rigid regarding timing. 

►Allow body language cues to help with moderating, pacing, and timing.  

Experiencing one another in other life roles helps everyone become as much people-focused as task-focused when later working together on a team project. It is a genuine manifestation of trust when one’s focus shifts from who is right or wrong to what’s working or not working, the latter of which is more likely to happen when people regard one another as “Pat the person” and not just “Pat the professional”.

My next blog will feature an even shorter activity to end the meeting, one that likewise is designed to build trust and team cohesion.

Holly Latty-Mann, PhD, president and owner of The Leadership Trust®, uses her two doctorates in psychology to heighten and crystallize self-awareness and emotional intelligence at root-cause level. Her holistic, integrative models extend to team and organizational development processes to engender trust-based collaborative efforts, thereby expediting both the creation and delivery of her clients’ innovative products and services. To contact Holly and learn more, visit www.leadershiptrust.org or write info@leadershiptrust.org.

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

Copyright 2014 Next Decade, Inc.

Welcome to TRUSTGiving 2014, our first annual weeklong trust awareness campaign. From November 17-23, Trust Across America-Trust Around the World will be delivering a series of guest blog posts to inspire and motivate you to raise the level of trust in your personal and professional relationships.

Who remembers a time when:

• Families, often extended, ate dinner together every night
• Doctors made house calls
• Business deals were done on a handshake
• Politicians kept their word
• Athletes exercised their way to peak performance
• The media reported the facts

These were just a few of the foundational elements of societal trust. Many seem like a distant memory, but given the right tools, we can return to a higher trust environment.

Join the Alliance of Trustworthy Business Experts this week as our members assist our readers in navigating the complex trust maze. Over the next seven days we will be blogging (several times a day) and posting on Twitter #TrustGiving2014.

Come join the celebration and share your newfound knowledge with others.

Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness. James Thurber

Barbara Brooks Kimmel is the Executive Director of Trust Across America-Trust Around the World whose mission is to help organizations build trust. She is also the editor of the award winning TRUST INC. book series and the Executive Editor of TRUST! Magazine. In 2012 Barbara was named “One of 25 Women Changing the World” by Good Business International.

Copyright 2014 Next Decade, Inc.