We are in a crisis. What’s more, our biggest crisis is not the financial one. At the World Economic Forum in China last week world leaders declared that our biggest crisis is not financial but a lack of trust and confidence. We are in a trust crisis and few people really understand the bottom line implications. Not only does it affect credit and government relations, but it also affects every relationship and every organization. Professor John Whitney of the Columbia Business School found, “Mistrust doubles the cost of doing business.” He is right. Without trust leaders lose teams and sales people lose sales. Without trust we all lose productivity, retention of good people, reputation, morale and revenue. The lower the trust the more time everything takes, the more everything costs, and the lower the loyalty of every one involved. However, with greater trust come greater innovation, creativity, freedom, morale, and a bigger bottom line.

All of my Master's research points to the fact that trust is the fundamental key to the most successful leaders and organizations. Obtaining this level of trust isn’t easy. If you are looking for a quick fix, don’t look to trust. While it may appear to be static, in reality it is more like a forest—a long time growing, but easily burned down with a touch of carelessness. Trust is by nature solid and proven. Without trust no lasting genuine success exists--just a brittle, fluffy, mirage of the real thing. The good news is that we can build this fundamental key to success. It is worth it! And it is the ONLY way to genuine relational or organizational success. Following is a synopsis of the eight pillars that build the Trust Edge.

1. Consistency: It’s the little things, done consistently, that make the big difference. In every area of life it is the little things. If I am over weight it is because I have eaten to many calories over time, not because I ate too much yesterday. If I am a good husband I am doing the little things that honor my wife on a daily basis. It is the same in business. The little things done consistently make for leaders being followed, increased sales and retention, and a higher level of trust. Consistency is the way brands are built and character is revealed. Even if we don’t like McDonalds, we trust them because they deliver the same burger in Cleveland as in Tokyo. Do the little things, consistently.

2. Clarity: People trust the clear and mistrust or distrust the ambiguous. Be clear about your mission, purpose, expectations, and daily activities. When people are clear about the mission they do the little things differently. A clear mission unifies and inspires. When a manager is clear in expectations, she will likely get what she wants. When we are clear about priorities on a daily basis we become productive and effective.

3. Compassion: Think beyond yourself. Never underestimate the power of sincerely caring. It is the reason we trust our mothers over some sales people. We are skeptical if the sales person really has our best interest in mind. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is not just an old saying, it is a bottom line truth. If followed it builds trust.

4. Character: Do what is right over what is easy. Character is a mix of two things. One is integrity, which means being the same from beliefs to words to actions. The other is moral character. It could be argued that Hitler had great integrity but low moral character. Most people know what is right. It is doing what’s right that is the difficult. We know we should respond to that email or stop watching TV and exercise or read to the kids. Take the high road in every interaction.

5. Contribution: Few things build trust quicker than actual results. Be a contributor that delivers real results!

6. Competency: Staying fresh, relevant and capable builds trust. The humble teachable person keeps learning new and better ways of doing things. They stay current on ideas and trends. According to one study the key competency of new MBA’s is not a specific skill, but rather the ability to learn amidst chaos. Arrogance and a “Been-there-done-that” attitude keep people from growing. There is always more to learn so make a habit of reading, learning, and listening to fresh information.

7. Connection: People want to follow, buy from and be around friends. People become friends when they build connection. Ask questions. Listen. Life, work, and trust are about relationships. All relationships are best built by establishing genuine connection.

8. Commitment: Stick with it through adversity. Followers trusted General Patton, Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, Jesus and George Washington because they saw commitment. They saw sacrifice for the greater good. Commitment reveals and it builds trust.

Trust does not start with the economy or government. It starts with individuals becoming trusted. When will we get out of this trust crisis? When we as individuals decide to build the Trust Edge on a daily basis. Keep on being trusted.

Dave Horsager, MA, CSP is an award-winning speaker, producer, professor, and entrepreneur. He has energized audiences on four continents with his humorous dynamic style and compelling bottom-line insights that help leaders and organizations gain the Trust Edge. Find out more at www.ideahorse.com or call 800.608.8969.

Labels: consistency, growth, leadership, relationships, teams, Trust, Vision

How about you? Do you just feel over-appreciated? Do you feel like you have just had a little too much thanks? I have seldom had a member of the audience raise his or her hand when I ask that question. And yet William James said the greatest need of every person is the need to be appreciated. If we are going to be great leaders, we must become great appreciators.

When I was a new Director of K-Life Inc. I was younger than many of my staff. I was a Yankee in Arkansas. On top of that I was asked by my board of Directors to fire two popular people that needed to be fired, but they were friends of mine. How would I build morale and help this organization grow significantly over the next four years? Well, there were certainly things beyond me. However, one little thing that I believe made a big difference was in the form of appreciation.

On Friday mornings I took a half an hour and wrote appreciation notes to people on our team, to board members, to volunteers, and to people that our organization impacted in the community. I looked for people that had done something significant that week and I wrote that person a personal hand-written not of appreciation. I did not write cheesy notes, "Nice smile" or "I like your sweater". I wrote notes of genuine appreciation for something specific that person had done that week.

Today I continue this habit of appreciating clients for hiring me, speaker bureaus for booking me, friends and mentors for helping me and more. The habit creates many wins. First it develops a heart of gratitude. Dennis Praeger said the most important trait a person can develop is that of gratefulness. He also found "gratitude" to be the only common trait among happy people. In other words, it wasn't that one was rich or poor, married or single, or of a certain ethnicity but happiness was found to be common only in those that have an attitude of gratitude.

Secondly, it recognizes great behaviors which tends to get more of that behavior--and you thought this just worked for dog training or kids. Finally, it builds morale and a sense of value. The truth of course is people are valuable. So let them know it.

Become an appreciator. Not someone who flatters. Not someone who is fake or disingenuous. Rather, be someone who simply values and appreciates people.

Labels: appreciation, leadership

Some of the following thoughts are excerpts from my Master's Degree research. To see more of the research go to www.HorsagerLeadershipStudio.com.

Trust is essential to personal and organizational success. Trust affects an organization’s effectiveness and its bottom line. Without trust leaders and organizations lose in every way. They lose productivity, employee retention, morale, effectiveness, efficiency, customer loyalty, morale, reputation, and revenue.

As an entrepreneur, speaker, and consultant I have often seen organizations put their focus on the trivial over the fundamental. Companies say they believe in high integrity, but they would rather pay for sales skills training than invest in nurturing integrity and high character. The truth is if one does not exhibit trust and integrity as a leader one will not have productive teams. If one does not create trust in sales, one is unlikely to sell. If one does not build trust in service, one will not create loyal customers. I believe trust is a bottom-line decision. But how does an individual or organization build trust?

The reality is trust is fundamentally important for success and effectiveness among people and organizations. Karlene Kerfoot concurs, “In the end it’s not techniques that count. The leader’s ability to engender trust is what really matters. Without trust, people cannot listen and hear (Kerfoot, 2001, p.42).” When trust is high then productivity, collaboration, openness, morale, initiative, creativity and effectiveness all go up—and so does the bottom line. The profound impact of trust is obvious, but there is a problem.

The Problem
Because the ability to build and sustain trust is so important for people and organizations to be successful and effective, inability to build trust or the presence of low-trust in a person or organization presents a problem that needs to be addressed. There has been a significant loss of trust among companies and people in recent years. According to Jane Gibson, “The European public simply doesn’t trust CEO’s (Gibson, 2007, p.13).” In fact, according to Gibson’s research, only twenty percent of Europeans trust the heads of companies (2007).

The body of research that was studied for my Master's Paper revealed several significant and foundational aspects of trust. The evidence pointed to some key areas that are most important for trust to be built and sustained in a person or organization. Many of these aspects of trust came up in multiple juried articles, reviews or books. I found six most common and foundational keys for trust building. A person, leader, or organization that was trustworthy contained the following six attributes: capable and competent, conscientious and committed, congruent and of high character, collaborative and connection (ability to have), compassionate and caring, and clear and candid.

A formula may make the findings more clear and usable. It should be understood that the formula came to me as a way to simplify and better understand this incredibly complex subject of trust. It is not meant to over simplify or give the idea that all of the important aspects of trust can be nicely placed in a succinct formula. Still if it helps understand and remember the findings it is worth it.

The following formula helps illustrate the findings:
+ Being Capable and Competent
+ Being Conscientious and Committed
+ Being Congruent and of High Character
+ Be Collaborative and able to Connect
+ Being Compassionate and Caring
+ Being ¬Clear and Candid
_______________________________= CONFIDENCE or HIGH TRUST
(in that organization or individual)



My research has provided clear evidence that building trust among teams and clients is essential for great and effective leadership. Bryant College researcher, Ronald J. Deluga found, “Interpersonal trust is crucial to supervisor and organizational effectiveness (1995).” Without trust people do not work together effectively. Without trust productivity decreases. In order to build trust, an environment must be created where there is open communication, genuine respect, low amounts of fear, and high regard for participation. Effective team leaders must demonstrate honesty, high integrity, and competence as well as a willingness to support his or her team. These traits will help build trust and in turn effective leadership.
Is trust important? Absolutely. Trust affects the relationships, effectiveness, and the bottom-line, so it is clearly worth building relationships and organizations with a high degree of trust. Though worth it, it may take considerable effort to build trust.. McDargh (2006) confirms that trust builds over time. According to Farber (2007), “Building trust does not happen overnight. It’s the many little things you do over time that help you build lasting relationships (p.85).”

Trust is a key element to genuine effectiveness and success. Greer (2002) States, “Trust allows the superstar in all of us to emerge (p.8).” This research gives hope that one can be a superstar if one becomes competent in the six fundamentals of trust found in this study. Further, trusting God, His Word, and becoming trustworthy are elements of trust that, by God’s grace, allow Him to shine through the Christian leader. Now one can look at a few more applications inspired by this research.

Application
Several things are important for one to apply research from this analysis. The first step is seeing the need to build trust as a leader and as an organization. Understanding the impact of trust on effectiveness and on the bottom line can be a motivator for becoming a high trust individual or organization. The findings in this study have proved the importance of trust for the effective leader or organization.

Next, one must take a good look at one’s trustworthiness. Getting feedback and taking some time to reflect are both important parts of applying the findings of this research. One way to get valuable feedback around one’s trustworthiness is to take a good assessment. If a person would like to use a simple but valuable tool to test a person’s level of trust that person can take my TRUST TEMPERATURE assessment by going to www.ideahorse.com. Just taking the time to honestly evaluate areas where one lacks trustworthiness can be eye opening and helpful for growth. To gain the most insight one can use the Trust Temperature Assessment as a short 360-degree feedback by giving the assessment to people one works with as well as superiors, clients and direct reports. Without feedback one may not see areas that need attention.

Another application for increasing trust is a vibrant faith. I do not know of a better way to build character than having a faith beyond one’s self. If one does not believe in some sort of absolute truth it is difficult to have a basis for any moral code.

One way a person may be able to stay the coarse, as far as one’s character is concerned is by developing an accountability group. Accountability helps one keep integrity and continue to grow. A Proverb states, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” For the last fourteen years I have met with the same accountability guys. We share deeply and we love one another. We really want the best for each other. I meet with one of the guys every week and with the others periodically. Once a year get together at a cabin for a longer (4-5 day) get-away where we listen, share goals, challenge, encourage, seek wisdom, pray, and encourage one another. Because of this accountability group businesses and ministries have been started, marriages and families have been strengthened.

Another way to apply this information is to keep learning about trust. Consider what areas may need to be strengthened. Then, seek to be trained in or develop those areas. Though some of the areas of trust are difficult to teach such as character. Some of the fundamentals can be developed in an organization or person more easily. Take time to grow and develop in the fundamentals of trustworthiness. If one is leading an organization, make sure to develop a climate that encourages the key elements of trustworthiness.
It takes being intentional to apply knowledge learned from this research. Start by doing little things to increase trust.

Labels: communication, leadership, Trust

I was talking to one of the great event planners in our industry. Kris Young hires only the best keynote speakers for the biggest and best corporate productions. I asked her, "Who do you like to work with the most?" She mentioned a few names. I said, "Why do you like them?" She gave a few great reasons that follow:

1. Humility. The great speakers are humble, open, willing and teachable. They listen to the needs of the client. They help brainstorm how they can best be used and even offer ideas of other speakers who may be a better fit. Kris said, "It's not about them it is about the client." Arrogance, pride, and big egos don't work over the long term for speakers or for leaders.
2. They deliver. They do what they say they will do. It is the same in every business isn't it? Those that deliver beyond expectations get plenty of business.
   
3. They are easy to work with.

Whether you are a speaker, a leader or both these truths are worth being reminded of. Humility is the beginning of learning and of being likeable. Who wants to be around a know-it-all? And yet one may be likable, but without valuable results business declines. If one is hard to deal with trust goes down while time and costs go up.

It is true that you have great responsibilities as a leader, but it is not all about you. Be humble, reliable and easy to work with and watch your relationships and business grow.

Labels: comunication, leadership

If vision is not shared consistently your team will lose it. Experts say if vision is not shared at least every 30 days your team will not know it and will lose inspiration. If vision really does motivate, unify, and encourage people to step up, it must be a central part of how a leader leads on a daily basis.

It is interesting how people "step up to the plate" when given a little vision. When one of my daughters was only two and a half years old we let her help set the china on the dining room table and we have all wood floors! You might think we were crazy but you should have seen her. She stepped up so proudly and carefully carrying and placing every place setting. Now, you have to be alright with a drop. But the truth is she has never dropped a single plate or glass. Why? Part of it might be that we shared some vision and gave her a little responsibility. My son does not carry this success story, but isn't a broken plate or even a few worth the opportunity to learn responsibility and grasp a vision. To see people step up is a leader's motivation.

I can remember growing up on the farm and my dad lived out his advice of "always give a child as much responsibility as he or she can handle." Of course, learning how much one can handle ensures mistakes will be made. I can remember spreading fertilizer when I was about ten years old and running the tractor into our car. Another time I drove too close to the ditch with the dump truck containing a thousand gallons of water and chemical and tipping it. I was twelve years old at the time. Did Dad get angry, never. I knew he believed the best of me. I knew I had made a big mistake. I wanted to do my best for a leader that would believe in me and give me great opportunities.

There are really two types of vision. Giving individual vision for how great a single person can be. And there is the bigger vision. The vision of the organization or team or family. Share both often. You will inspire, encourage, and unify.

How can you share more vision with your team, organization, or family? A few ideas follow:

1. Simplify the vision of your organization so that people can remember it.
2. Every chance you speak tie back to the vision.
3. Get the vision in front of people whether on desks, the refrigerator, screen savers, framed pictures, t-shirts, mugs, above the urinals or stall doors, or weekly emails.

Labels: leadership, Vision

As I am up with the my family on the farm where I grew up I am reminded of how healthy things grow and sick things die. On the farm healthy animals and crops grow. Sick ones don't, and often die. It is the same in organizations isn't it? Healthy people and organizations grow and sick ones get stagnant and even die.

When we take the time to water and cultivate relationships, ideas, and competencies growth is nearly certain. However, when we get complacent and careless, we start to shrivel. Many say, "The grass is greener on the other side". The truth is it is greener where one tends to it. Tend to your relationships, clients and organizations daily and see great growth, and green pasture!

Labels: growth, leadership, relationships

My wife Lisa and I visited the site of the 35W bridge collapse last evening. Being there and seeing it was an awe-filled experience. We have traveled the bridge countless times. Certainly it is a tradgedy for many, especially for the family and friends who lost loved ones. Currently much research is being done on "why" the bridge failed.

One of the main theories of why the bridge collapsed is that the center connecter plates or gusset plates were cracked. Thus, they were no longer able to do their job of holding the steel beams together. However, it wasn't that no one knew they were weak. Investigations and documents of the cracking and instabilities were reported. The problem is that the feedback was not taken seriously.

Many leaders have the same problem. They are unwilling to seek or accept feedback that would help them be stronger. Arrogance, pride, defensiveness, and embaressment often stand in the way of finding and taking feedback that could help a leader be stronger. Without accountablility and feedback we often lose our foundation. Seeking and acknowledging feedback, and then taking steps to improve, might keep you and I from personal and organizational disaster. What are some ways to get needed feedback?

1. Develop an accountability group that genuinely wants the best for each other. Ask tough questions, then listen.
2. Use a good 360 degree feedback survey. (email info@horsagerleadershipstudio.com for recommendations)
3. Ask co-workers, supervisors, clients, and even your spouse how you might serve them better.
4. Become sensative and aware of how you communicate. Become a student of interpersonal communication and empathy.

Keep learning

Labels: communication, leadership, learning, listening

"Keep Learning" is a fitting theme as I enter the world of blogdom. Why are some people so fresh and vibrant and able to deal with change? One reason, they keep learning. They never fall into the trap of thinking they know it all. My dad is 78 now. At 74 he received his private pilot's license and at age 75 he played his first musical instrument. One of the reason's his farm was successful through the 80's when many farms were going under was his ability to change, learn, and diversify. His mother was known for reading a book a day and she read every book in two libraries. While I am grateful for this legacy, I see how I must be intentional if I am going to continue it.

The worst sales people are "Know-it-alls". The best leaders are learners. Peter Vaill, in his book "Learning as a way of Being" points out the most important competency to today is not technical but rather the ability, humility, and desire to keep on learning. In this fast-paced culture we must develop the priority and system to keep learning. One learns very little by watching TV. What are a few simple ideas to keep learning:

1. Turn your car into a university by listening to podcasts and CDs while driving.
2. Intentionally read every day - books and articles are likely better than just the newspaper.
3. Find a Mentor. Brian Foote said, "The key to success is having a mentor." I have had mentors for speaking, leadership, Real Estate, and faith. Is it worth it? ABSOLUTELY!
4. Be observant.
5. Reflect. Get away. Process. Great learning occurs in times of reflection of every day experience.

One thought to remember; the goal is not to learn everything - it can't happen in this world of rapid change. The freshness that comes with just learning and continually learning how to learn is the goal. In this world of change I want to hire people that know how to learn because what I need them to do tomorrow not in the MBA text book today.

Keeping on learning,

Dave Horsager

Labels: leadership, learning