Trust is fundamental to every human relationship. It is our first discovery along the EQ spectrum because it is the most important element of high-performance teams and effective organizations. In this episode, Chris, Luke, and Hannah explore what trust is and how it shows up and provide specific tactics for how to instill trust with those we lead.

Chris asks, why do we often see trust as a challenge within our teams, colleagues, and from within? Luke believes that most leaders and peers on a team have good intent. They want to come to work and have good relationships with people while being effective and productive. However, he believes that the biggest issue is entitlement.

Many people want entitlement, but they assume that they’ve already earned it, that they’ve already got it. Once they assume, they’ve done the work and are entitled to everyone’s trust until they prove otherwise, the problems quickly surface. Luke uses the analogy of buying a car and trusting it to get him where he needs to go until it breaks down.

Luke explains how he defaults to trust that his car will take him somewhere unless he hears a noise or another indicator that there is a problem. But people don’t work that way. Trust takes constant care and feeding. Sadly, there’s just a lot of leaders that don’t understand that in the absence of proactive action to instill trust, it will erode on its own.

Hannah points out that needs to be earned. She explains that upon meeting someone for the first time, she doesn’t have the luxury of evidence that she can trust this person in specific ways that are important to her. Hannah will naturally assume positive intent, and the behavior of the person will build that trust over a period of time.

A common theme on the Magic in the Room podcast is the gap between intent and behavior and how it affects the people that we’re in a relationship with. Hannah also shares how earning trust means we show up in specific ways and take certain actions and behave in a way that continues to build trust. But we need to remember that other behaviors can also erode that trust.

Chris also warns that many courageous leaders will start by extending trust, and by extending compassion. But you can’t assume it, you have to earn it, and if we don’t nurture that trust, it will erode. By simply helping people get from A to B can help escalate trust. Our position increases, our ability to influence outcomes that change the world grows organically.

However, there is no avoiding the fact that trust is fundamental to every human interaction and leadership. It also plays a critical role in every effective organization and creating a high performing team. Securing the trust of others requires leaders to have the willingness to look for the good in others and to assume positive intent. Instilling trust requires leaders to show up and actively consider how we can build trust more effectively each day with every person that they interact with.

Here at the Purpose & Performance Group, we  support courageous leaders. We don’t want people to do it alone. We want people to do it in a community. We believe there’s this magical thing that happens when you’re in a community of like-minded people, where all of a sudden, you feel less like the crazy person that has your values and more like yes, these are my values and everyone.

Please share your experiences around instilling trust in your organization by commenting below.

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