Trust: Secret Ingredient to Transform Everything

Author and speaker Barry Rellaford opened the NextGen session “Leading at the Speed of Trust: The Key Leadership Competency of the New, Global Economy quoting the latest Harvard University’s Institute of Politics poll about Millennial’s trust in government. Harvard’s poll showed Millennials, have lost trust in different major public institutions ranging from the President to the federal government as a whole. Now that Millennials’ level of trust have dropped to historical levels it is imperative to encourage the next generation of leaders to inspire trust.

The training session built the business case for trust following the quote, “When trust goes up, speed will also go up and cost will go down. When trust goes down, speed will go down and cost will go up.” Great leaders get great results due to the understanding of the importance of human relationships, and relations are built on trust. But why trust? Trust is like the immune system in our bodies, like the operating system in a computer or like the tissue in our body. In other words, trust is everything and without it achieving business success will be like an expedition to the Everest.

The speaker asked participants to share with a partner their experience with low trust relationships. Uncertain, demotivating, costly, disengaging and exhausting were some of the words shared by the emerging leaders in the room. The audience concluded that joy goes down when trust levels are low. Right after studying low trust, the audience evaluated high trust relationships. Words like collaboration, efficiency, energy, friendliness, fast and fantastic were energetically vociferated by participants.

After exploring personal experiences with trust Barry shared the five waves of trust with the class. The First Wave was about Self Trust, which translates to credibility. The second wave was Relationship Trust that addresses consistent behavior. The Third Wave covered Organizational Trust, which helps leaders to create structures, systems and symbols of organizational trust. The Fourth Wave was about Market Trust or reputation. The Fifth Wave was Societal Trust covering the concept of contribution. After sharing the five waves Barry quoted M.R. Covey’s words, “As trust is manifest in each successive wave, the effect of trust becomes cumulative and exponential.” Understanding these waves will enable leaders to see, speak and behave in ways that establish trust, allowing you to become a leader who gets results by inspiring trust in others. The training session was closed with the following quote displayed on the screen: Be a leader, get results in ways that inspire trust with your stakeholders.