Monday, October 22, 2007
Building trust
Do you enjoy reading quotes - those little insights into the great minds of today and past times? For some it is impossible to see a few words in the midst of quotation marks without taking a moment to gaze and ponder the wisdom.Recently I contemplated the words written by T. S. Eliot half a century ago. He said, “Those who trust us educate us.” These words stuck me as especially poignant as this week my first book will be published. The book, “Life’s Leadership Lessons,” is a collection of stories about the people, events, and things encountered on the pathways of my life and the impact they had teaching me about leadership.
Eliot’s words have caused me to reflect on the importance of trust in learning many of the lessons chronicled in my manuscript.
The changing face of trust
There was a time when trust was freely given. We trusted people automatically. It was openly granted based on position in an organizational structure or in the newness of acquaintance.
Times have changed and so has the awarding of trust. Perhaps the “trust must be earned era” started with the Vietnam Conflict or the political scandals of the 1970s. It was certainly catapulted into standard operating policy by the corporate scandals of the 1990s.
There is little doubt today that trust must be earned. I have identified four steps to building trust, which I correlate to baseball using what I call TrustBall™. Here are the four steps. Correctly following each step, in order, will advance you around the bases to a home run:
- Act consistent with trust building.
- View the other as an equal partner.
- Build the relationship with open and honest dialog.
- Find win-win scenarios for challenges and opportunities.
Follow these steps and you will be able to earn the trust of employees and co-workers of all ages. However if you miss a base or fail trying to execute the necessary action to move to the next base, you must go to the on-deck circle, where honest, specific apologies are required, until you can once again get up to bat.
If you are successful in the game of TrustBall™, you will develop a reputation of trustworthiness, which will further increase your ability to earn trust.
Remember Eliot’s words, “Those who trust us educate us.” Your reward for earning the trust is a wealth of knowledge.
The significance of trust
As recounted in my book, “Life’s Leadership Lessons,” the people from whom I learned the most positive life lessons were those in whom I had placed my trust, in turn receiving their trust.
They include:
If you are successful in the game of TrustBall™, you will develop a reputation of trustworthiness, which will further increase your ability to earn trust.
Remember Eliot’s words, “Those who trust us educate us.” Your reward for earning the trust is a wealth of knowledge.
The significance of trust
As recounted in my book, “Life’s Leadership Lessons,” the people from whom I learned the most positive life lessons were those in whom I had placed my trust, in turn receiving their trust.
They include:
- Bob House, the Kmart Vice-President of Vendor Relations who trusted me as one of his directors and mentored me through lessons about asking the right questions and handling manipulators.
- Andy Giancamelli, the Kmart President that trusted me to be a liaison between his buyers and vendors and taught me that leaders need to think for themselves.
- Joseph P. Cool, an expert of international business, who shows his trust in me through his openness in teaching me that leaders give back to the community.
- Dolphins, trusting mankind with open abandon, teaching us about teamwork.
Many others are mentioned in the book such as Maria, the cleaning lady that showed me everyone can be a leader; Bob Thomas, my autistic son’s case worker that taught me about leading through humility; Martha Stewart who taught me about loyalty and overcoming failure; my wife and her lesson about priorities.
I am excited about seeing my first book in print at the end of this week. It will be the realization of a life goal. But more importantly, it will be the culmination of what T. S. Eliot refers to, an education from those who trusted me.
© 2007 Max Impact. Click here to read more about or to order Life’s Leadership Lessons.
© 2007 Max Impact. Click here to read more about or to order Life’s Leadership Lessons.
Labels: Leadership, Trust
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
A tale of two pots
A water bearer had two large pots, each hung on each end of a pole which he carried across his neck.One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to themaster's house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.
For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water in his master's house.
Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made.
But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.
After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream.
"I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you."
"Why?" asked the bearer. "What are you ashamed of?"
"I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master's house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts," the pot said.
The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, "As we return to the master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path."
Indeed as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path and this cheered it some. But at the end of tile trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again it apologized to the bearer for its failure.
The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of your path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you've watered them.
For two years, I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house."
Do you know your employee's weaknesses? The Profile XT™ makes it possible to see any individual's weaknesses and strengths. A coaching report offers sensible and practical tips enabling the individual's supervisor to draw talent from the employee to overcome weaknesses and build on strengths.
Labels: Anecdote, Attitude, Motivation, Story
Monday, October 1, 2007
Top Three Reasons Executives Break Ethics Code
Business ethics are in the forefront of today's news as corporate scandals continue to surface throughout America. Many companies have developed new ethic guidelines in the last few years in an attempt to emphasize the importance of ethics to their management teams.Despite the emphasis on ethics, most companies issue ethics statements and policies without addressing the key issue, which is behavior. Companies fall into the false promise that have a strong ethics code their management team will somehow have the character and poise to meet the ethics code.
A recent survey conducted by the American Management Association and the Human Resource Institute identified the top three factors that would cause people to break their organizations ethical standards. These three include:
- Pressure to meet unrealistic objectives or deadlines. An overwhelming 70% of the 1,121 respondents indicated a willingness to break with ethical standards if they needed to do so to achieve a difficult objective or meet and overly aggressive deadline.
- Career advancement. In a distant second place, 39% said they would compromise and ethical standard if it meant advancing one's career. This could be taken to mean that the employee would break company policy for an internal advancement or that they might reveal proprietary information in order to land a job at a competitor.
- Protecting their livelihood. The third most prevalent temptation is that of self preservation. 34% of the respondents indicated that they would compromise ethics if it would protect their livelihood
Two Proven Ways to Reduce Ethics Breaches
Two simple solutions are available to organizations to reduce these three potentially dangerous ethics breaches.
The first is relatively easy: use team decision-making skills. The effective use of team decision-making skills sets realistic objectives and deadlines for an organization. This is not to say that the deadlines and objectives represent any kind of sandbagging, it is to say that the group analyzes the decision to be made and works together to achieve a plan that is both expeditious and attainable because the team believes it is possible.
The results are typically astounding. “That Total Team Experience” is a program developed at MaxImpact, the leadership and organizational development company that connects teams to a common vision, has been very effective by producing substantial results. One manufacturer that use the program saw a 53% decline in rejected parts within one month after completing the program.
A second successful method is using interactive ethics workshops. These workshops do not just discuss the need for ethics or the ramifications of not complying with ethics. The most successful workshops are those that help individuals understand exactly where it is that they would personally draw the line when he comes to breaking an ethic. Workshops of this nature are filled with self-awareness exercises that are instrumental in helping understand exactly where the person envisions the line between right and wrong.
“Most people realize that it is wrong to steal a laptop computer. Unfortunately many people feel it is okay to steal a pen,” says Max Impact President Rick Weaver. “But people don't realize is that what play between a pen and a laptop that okay becomes not okay. You can do all the preaching you want about what is right and wrong but until someone really understands where they personally view ethics you will not have a lasting impact.”
Two simple solutions are available to organizations to reduce these three potentially dangerous ethics breaches.
The first is relatively easy: use team decision-making skills. The effective use of team decision-making skills sets realistic objectives and deadlines for an organization. This is not to say that the deadlines and objectives represent any kind of sandbagging, it is to say that the group analyzes the decision to be made and works together to achieve a plan that is both expeditious and attainable because the team believes it is possible.
The results are typically astounding. “That Total Team Experience” is a program developed at MaxImpact, the leadership and organizational development company that connects teams to a common vision, has been very effective by producing substantial results. One manufacturer that use the program saw a 53% decline in rejected parts within one month after completing the program.
A second successful method is using interactive ethics workshops. These workshops do not just discuss the need for ethics or the ramifications of not complying with ethics. The most successful workshops are those that help individuals understand exactly where it is that they would personally draw the line when he comes to breaking an ethic. Workshops of this nature are filled with self-awareness exercises that are instrumental in helping understand exactly where the person envisions the line between right and wrong.
“Most people realize that it is wrong to steal a laptop computer. Unfortunately many people feel it is okay to steal a pen,” says Max Impact President Rick Weaver. “But people don't realize is that what play between a pen and a laptop that okay becomes not okay. You can do all the preaching you want about what is right and wrong but until someone really understands where they personally view ethics you will not have a lasting impact.”
© 2007 Max Impact.
PS: Did you know you can measure integrity before you hire? See how.
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