“The first thing for any leader is to inspire trust.”
~Doug Conant, CEO, Campbell Soup Company
As we are nearing the end of our series on trust following Covey’s book, The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything, we have three final concepts to discuss; Extending Smart Trust, Restoring Trust When it has Been Lost, and A Propensity to Trust.
How difficult is it to inspire trust? What Servant Leaders understand about trust is that:
- Nothing can be as profitable as the financial success of trust in the workplace
- Nothing is as relevant as the consciousness and the impact of trust
- Nothing is as important and valuable to every relationship on every level in your life as the dividends of trust.
BUT…
Servant leaders are human, and as such, some residual feelings of fear, hesitancy, and skepticism may block extending trust to others. Somewhere deep in our consciousness we may believe that people can’t be trusted, or maybe we grew up or currently work in a low-trust environment. Even worse, maybe we have been burned in the past. Trust betrayed. Just maybe people have not extended meaningful trust to us.
In this last section of the book, Covey presents us with ideas and concepts about ways in which we can extend what he calls, “Smart Trust.” The consciousness of smart trust allows servant leaders to develop skills and competencies that help to avoid the pitfalls and ensures the greatest rewards for everyone.
Servant Leaders can learn to restore trust where it has been lost, and most of all, Servant Leaders must develop the propensity to trust. Indeed, it is critical to effective leadership and living.
Finally, Servant leaders understand that extending trust to others is the most important key to developing and sustaining high-trust environments at work and home. As a matter of fact, “Extend Trust” is one of the 13 behaviors we have been discussing the last six weeks.
At the end of the day, Servant leaders know that their first job is to inspire. Inspiring others is the line in the sand that differentiates the Servant leader from the manager. To inspire trust is paramount to true and authentic success. As the saying goes, “To be inspired is great, to inspire is incredible.”
To Inspiring Trust,
Dr. Crystal
