{"id":3147,"date":"2016-02-22T07:43:32","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T12:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/?p=3147"},"modified":"2016-02-22T07:43:32","modified_gmt":"2016-02-22T12:43:32","slug":"in-business-high-trust-beats-rules-every-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trustacrossamerica.com\/blog\/?p=3147","title":{"rendered":"In Business High Trust Beats “Rules” (every time)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It’s Week #8 of 2016. This is our latest article in a series of \u00a0ideas to elevate trust in your organization, drawn from our 3rd annual 2016 Trust Poster<\/a><\/strong>….now hanging in hundreds of offices around the world. Get yours today<\/a>!<\/p>\n

52 Ideas That You Can Implement to Build Trust<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stephen M.R. Covey<\/a>\u00a0a Trust Alliance<\/a> Member and\u00a0one of our 2016 Top Thought Leaders in Trust<\/a>, and a Lifetime Achievement Award winner offers this:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first job of a leader is to inspire trust; the second job is to extend trust.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As leaders, we inspire trust through our credibility\u2014our character and our competence\u2014and through our behavior\u2014how we do what we do. While I believe that most leaders today recognize the need to inspire trust by modeling it through who they are and what they can do, I\u2019m not sure that most recognize the equally vital need to extend trust to others. And that\u2019s where I think we\u2019re got to put special focus in our leadership work\u2014leading out in extending trust to others.<\/em><\/p>\n

Indeed, I believe that the defining skill that transforms a manager into a leader is the extending of trust. And the extension of trust generates reciprocity: when we give it, people receive it, and they return it. When we withhold it, they withhold it. As Abraham Lincoln put it in the affirmative: \u201cThe people, when rightly and fully trusted, will return the trust.\u201d And Lao Tzu expressed the other side: \u201cHe who does not trust enough will not be trusted. No trust given, none received. Mistrust begets mistrust.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In my work in over 40 countries over the past few years, I have found this common pattern in lower-trust organizations: the primary reason why employees don\u2019t trust their management in lower-trust companies is first and foremost because the management doesn\u2019t trust the employees\u2014and the employees reciprocate that distrust right back at them. The same thing can happen with partners, and even with customers. If you don\u2019t trust them, they\u2019ll tend to not trust you.<\/em><\/p>\n

But, thankfully, it works the other direction as well. When we extend trust to others, people receive it, and they return it. They\u2019re inspired by it. They rise to the occasion. They perform better. They want to prove the trust justified. There is a genuine reciprocity of trust. Yes, a few may abuse the trust but the vast majority will be inspired by it. Don\u2019t penalize the many because of the few. Don\u2019t let the 5% of the people you can\u2019t trust define for you the 95% who you can. Far better to build your culture around the 95% who you can trust and let that culture crowd out, weed out, starve out the 5% who you can\u2019t. Some are afraid of extending trust out of fear that they might lose control. But think about it: at the end of the day, there is actually more control in a high-trust culture than there is in a rules-based culture because you can\u2019t come up with enough rules for people who you can\u2019t trust. The French sociologist Emile Dirkheim put it this way: \u201cWhen mores [cultural values] are sufficient, laws are unnecessary; when mores are insufficient, laws are unenforceable.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In my judgment, the very act of extending trust is the defining act of leadership. And it\u2019s the leaders job to go first. Someone needs to go first; that\u2019s what leaders do\u2014leaders go first. Yes, there\u2019s a risk in trusting people. But there\u2019s also a risk in not trusting people. And I\u2019m going to submit that in today\u2019s collaborative, interdependent, knowledge-worker world, not trusting people is more often the greater risk. Now I\u2019m not suggesting that we extend trust blindly or naively, without clear expectations or accountability\u2014that\u2019s not smart. But I am suggesting that we lead out with a decided propensity to trust\u2014to extend trust wisely (what I refer to as \u201csmart trust\u201d).<\/em><\/p>\n

The reality is that we need more willingness to extend trust in our world today, not less. Unfortunately, it\u2019s not uncommon to have two trustworthy people working together\u2014and no trust\u2014when neither person is willing to extend it to the other.<\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I reiterate: the first job of a leader is to inspire trust; the second job is to extend it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Extending trust not only transforms a manager into a leader, it is a game-changer\u2014both for the leader extending the trust and for the person being trusted. Indeed, to be trusted is the most inspiring and compelling form of human motivation.<\/em><\/p>\n

People today don\u2019t want to be managed; they want to be led. Millenials don\u2019t want to be managed; they want to be led. They want to be inspired. The reality is that we manage things (which have no agency or choice) but we lead people (who do have agency and choice).\u00a0\u00a0 We should strive to be efficient with things and effective with people. But too often, too many of us treat people like things and attempt to manage them, be efficient with them, and withhold trust from them. That doesn\u2019t inspire. What does inspire is to lead out in extending trust to others.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the beautiful words of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, \u201cIn everybody\u2019s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful to those people who rekindle the inner spirit.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

When we extend trust to another person, we rekindle the inner spirit\u2014both theirs, and ours, and in so doing, we can also produce an extraordinary dividend: what I call \u201cthe speed of trust.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Thank you Stephen. We hope our readers heed your advice.<\/p>\n

It’s not too late to catch up on our weekly series…..<\/p>\n

Week #1 Kouzes & Posner\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Week #2 Bob Vanourek<\/a><\/p>\n

Week #3 Barbara Kimmel<\/a><\/p>\n

Week #4 Mark Fernandes<\/a><\/p>\n

Week #5 Doug Conant<\/a><\/p>\n

Week #6 Roger Steare<\/a><\/p>\n

Week #7 Nan Russell<\/a><\/p>\n

Barbara Brooks Kimmel<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is the CEO & Cofounder\u00a0of\u00a0<\/span>Trust Across America-Trust Around the World<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0whose mission is to help organizations build trust and integrity. She facilitates the world’s\u00a0largest membership program<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>for those interested in the subject. Barbara also serves as\u00a0editor of the award winning\u00a0<\/span>TRUST INC.<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>book series and the Executive Editor of\u00a0<\/span>TRUST! Magazine<\/span><\/a><\/span>. In 2012 Barbara was named \u201cOne of 25 Women Changing the World\u201d by Good Business International.<\/span><\/p>\n

Copyright 2016, Next Decade, Inc.<\/p>\n

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