Why Trust is Important

It's twice as hard to watch your front and back at the same time as it is to just watch your front.  Actually, it is probably more than twice as hard.

In order to achieve the highest levels of productivity, a team must be immersed in trust.  This means that followers need to trust their leaders as much as leaders trust their followers.  If we want people to be open, and honest, and provide their best ideas and efforts, they need to know that they are in a safe place to do so.  They also need to know that if you let them go on a limb, and it snaps, you'll be there to catch them.

There are so many reasons why we need trust in our working (and all other) relationships, but it still seems to be absent in many teams.  Just remember, without that foundation of trust, people will be reserved, and will always keep one foot out the door.  Build that trust.  Build loyalty.

Our Check Ride assessment looks at a number of criteria surrounding trust because we know that without it, your team will never truly be successful.  Sure, you might complete your projects successfully, but without that trust, your team will never reach its full potential.

Just think, have you ever worked with someone that you knew would have your back, and you knew would support you no matter what out-of-the-box idea you threw their way?

I certainly hope so, and if not, maybe it's time to foster a bit more trust.

-Alexander C. Cook MEng, MBA, PEng, PMP

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Improving Team Performance Through Connection

Leading others is not without risk, nor is it for the faint of heart. As important as it is for you as a Leader to set the goal to be achieved, it is more important to sense how things change as your Followers begin to align their efforts to support you. In some cases, this alignment among Team Members generates a momentum towards successful achievement of the goal that is unstoppable. Other times, factors of mis-alignment, significant changes in the environment, and unforeseen constraints pop up that are signals for you to review your approach. The key to any such review is to connect with your Followers.

Staying closely and personally connected to those who follow your lead will provide the early warning signs of emerging problem areas. Taking a moment to embrace the points of view expressed by your Followers will arm you, as their leader, with rich and immediate understanding of root causes for mis-alignments in the Team, surprises in the surrounding situation and shortages in resources or other constraints that will affect goal achievement. Not only will this close connection to your Followers enable you to act early but, also, to act in a manner informed by the collective experience and expertise of your Team.

Experience has taught me that my best and most immediate source of validation for any Leadership approach I take, is my Team. When I have embraced them, sought their feedback about what is working and what is not working, I have been able to accelerate performance. When I have relied on my own counsel, without a close personal connection to my Team, I have floundered and lost my way. A Team needs a good Leader. Leaders need to embrace their Team to be good.

-Lieutenant Colonel (ret'd) Ron Guidinger BEng, MBA, PEng, PMP