Blanchard Research and Training India LLP

There’s a story that Ken Blanchard, best-selling business author and co-founder of The Ken Blanchard Companies, likes to tell. A little girl asks her mother, “Mommy, why does daddy have to work so late every night?”

“Well honey,” the mom replies, “he just doesn’t have time to get all of his work done during the day.”

The little girl, in her infinite wisdom, thinks about this for a moment and says, “Maybe they need to put him in a slower group.”

“Everyone laughs when they hear that story,” says Blanchard, “because these days, everyone knows that there aren’t any ‘slower groups.’ We’re all working in an accelerated environment that combines high expectations with a mandate to keep costs contained.”

This presents a real challenge for today’s leaders. It’s also the focus of a “Doing Still More With Less” Leadership Livecast that Blanchard is hosting on April 24. More than 40 different business thought leaders are participating via video to identify solutions to the challenges that leaders, organizations, and individual employees face in dealing with today’s hyper-competitive work environment.

Find your focus

One of the thought leaders that Blanchard has invited to participate is Charlene Li, author, consultant, and founder of Altimeter Group. In Li’s experience, doing more with less begins with identifying the vital, critical work that will get you and your organization the results you are looking for.

“When you are setting your strategy of the goal that you’re trying to achieve, it’s imperative to know what you will do and also what you won’t do to achieve that strategy. In order to get more done, you actually have to do fewer things, but very crucially, the most important things—and just as essential, make sure all the people around you understand what it is you will do and also what you won’t do.”

For Jane Perdue, consultant, blogger, and principal with Braithwaite Innovation Group, that moment came when—for the third time in 18 months—her boss announced that the organization would be going through another round of cost savings. This time he said it was a 20-percent, across-the-board cut.

As Perdue shares, “We knew we were going to have to disrupt how we thought about what we did and what we delivered to the organization. We decided to ask ourselves the question Are we doing the right work, with the right people, in the right way, at the right time, in the right pursuit of company initiatives, and are we using the right information and the right tools to make it so?

For Perdue and her team, that analysis was a physical, mental, and emotional roller-coaster ride as they analyzed every output, every report, every meeting, every trip, every interaction, and every process. Their goal was to determine whether the work they were currently doing was truly mission critical or if it was something they had turned into a sacred cow over the years.

As Perdue explains, “There was conflict. There was rich debate. Toes were stepped on. Fiefdoms were challenged. We had tears. We had laughter. And we ended up in a good spot—because we discovered that some of our work, which we thought was essential, was really just nice to have. To paraphrase Mark Twain, we made hamburger out of some of our sacred cows as we learned that we had allowed our thinking to get stuck about what was important.”

Take a minute to reflect and get organized

For leaders looking to reexamine their own work, Ken Blanchard recommends taking a minute to reflect and get organized.

“The reality today is that leaders have to find quiet time to think through what’s really important to do. Today more than ever, you have to identify the 20 percent that is going to give you the 80 percent. You have to find out what is vital when you’re looking at everything you have to accomplish. In order to do more with less, you have to focus your energy on the work that is the most important.

“The next step is to prioritize that work and turn it into measureable goals. Identify three to five things you can get done on a consistent basis. Get your life organized so you can focus and help others organize their lives.”

Both managers and direct reports have a responsibility to see that gets done says Kathy Cuff, a senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies.

“For employees, I believe we really need to find our voices. You need to be able to speak up. When someone asks, ‘How do I say no? I can’t say no to my boss,’ I always tell them, ‘Write down all the things you do, all the things you’re working on—projects, activities, everything people are asking you to do. Use that as a way to go in and have a conversation with your manager to ask him or her to help you prioritize the most important things to do, given the amount of time you have.’ We don’t necessarily need to take it all on and think we have to always get it all done.”

Make your people your partner

“Doing more with less means that managers and their people have to be partners. It can’t be ‘my way or the highway,’” says Blanchard. “You have to empower your people. Micromanaging is a thing of the past. Managers can’t be on top of everything.”

Randy Conley, trust practice leader at The Ken Blanchard Companies, agrees and suggests three strategies for truly partnering with your people:

Communicate the reality with your team. Share all the information you have about your business—the good, the bad, and the ugly. Information is power and if you withhold information, people view you as untrustworthy and power hungry. People without information cannot act responsibly, but people with information are compelled to act in the best interests of your organization.

Create a high-involvement process to engage others in coming up with solutions to your business challenges. There’s an old saying that goes, “People who plan the battle rarely battle the plan.” So solicit input. Get people’s ideas on what they can do differently—and what they can do better—to meet the needs of your organization.

Dial up your support of your people. You can do this by listening. Take time to understand people’s concerns. Listen to what’s weighing heavily on them. You can also dial up your support by jumping in the trenches—working alongside your folks to get the job done. Be visible. Be present. Let them know you’re there to help them succeed.
Raise up your people capability

“There is always opportunity—you just have to find it,” explains Blanchard. “People tend to believe that the current situation will continue—even when they don’t necessarily want it to. There is a certain comfort in the status quo. But your organization can’t afford to be complacent.”

“Difficult times are growth times,” shares John Stahl-Wert, best-selling author and founder of The SHIP Company. “Invariably, we gain an opportunity to get better and to understand things more deeply. Many leaders and managers see times of restraint as a time to pressure people more and provide less in terms of the human side and support. This is so foolish.

“Look at ways that you can raise up the people capability, not try to pressure productivity—you’ll get that. Raise up the people capability. There’s an opportunity in these hard times. Let’s stretch for it and let’s invite the people who work with us to become more than they are currently.”

“The good news is that if handled correctly, these tough times can actually lead to increased employee motivation,” concludes Blanchard. “If leaders can create more autonomy by giving their people what they need when they need it, building competency and stronger relationships along the way, they will increase employees’ sense of well-being and overall performance.”

Would you like to learn more about creating a high performance culture that meets today’s increased work demands? Then join us for a free Leadership Livecast!

Doing Still More With Less

Wednesday, April 24, 2013
9:00–11:30 a.m. Pacific Time, 12:00–2:30 p.m. Eastern Time
5:00–7:30 p.m. UK, 4:00–6:30 p.m. GMT

Many of us in the workplace are stressed, overworked, and overextended. Yet our organizations seem to be asking still more of us. How do we learn to do more with less? And then still more with less again?

That’s the focus of this Leadership Livecast—looking at ways to drive and maintain high performance without burnout.

You’ll hear from experienced managers, senior coaches, and leadership experts including Elliott Masie, Steve Roesler, Charlene Li, James Maas, Lee Cockerell, Fons Trompenaars, and many more—along with live commentary from Ken Blanchard and Scott Blanchard—on how to avoid the deal-breaking moment when your top talent declares, “No more doing more with less.”

Topics to be covered include:

Defining “More”—how to set priorities when faced with an ever-increasing workload
Get it right, starting at the top—how to create processes at the individual, team, and organizational level
Don’t forget your people—how communication and engagement impact productivity
Set yourself up for success—minding your own (and others’) mental and physical health
In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, leaders need to make sure that everyone in the organization is thriving and performing at a sustainably high level. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to successfully accomplish more with less.

“You can learn a lot about your own development as a leader by looking into some of the common characteristics people identify with a ‘best boss’ from their past,” says David Witt, Program Director with The Ken Blanchard Companies®. In listening to the responses of hundreds of people to the question, “Who was your best boss, and what was it about him or her that made them so special?” Witt has learned that the answers, though wide-ranging, consistently fall into two main categories.

The first common characteristic is the relationship aspect. “People say that their best boss cared about them, gave them opportunities, created a great working environment, made work fun, and was flexible and supportive.”

Second, there is the performance aspect. “People will share that their work was important, their boss expected a lot from them, and that their best boss saw qualities in them that they didn’t necessarily see in themselves.”

It’s the combination approach that makes everything work, explains Witt. One without the other doesn’t get nearly the results that a dual focus does.

“The Gallup organization discovered this initially as a part of a second round of their engagement research. In comparing engagement levels with bottom-line impact, Gallup found that engagement didn’t always translate into financial results. It was only when another component was added that the impact was evident.

“That other component was clear performance expectations. When clear expectations were combined with high levels of support organizations achieved the consistently high levels of financial performance that the researchers were looking for. This is the place where today’s top companies operate. The dual focus of high support combined with high expectations is what drives results.”

Some well-known examples

As Witt explains, “I had a chance to meet Colleen Barrett, president emeritus of Southwest Airlines, when she teamed up with Ken Blanchard to write the book, Lead with LUV: A Different Way to Create Real Success (Southwest’s stock symbol is LUV). While I knew that Southwest had a reputation for hiring fun-loving people and had a famous fun-loving culture, what I didn’t realize until I met Colleen face-to-face was that the company also had a very deeply ingrained high-expectations work ethic. As Colleen revealed, ‘We are very clear in telling our people what our expectations are. We hold them and ourselves accountable for meeting those expectations every day. Sometimes this means having a real heart-to-heart with people and reminding them what our values are. If we have been intentional and firm in explaining what our expectations are, it gives us the opportunity to point to specific examples where they haven’t exhibited the required behaviors.’”

Garry Ridge, President and CEO of household goods manufacturer WD-40 Company, also subscribes to this combination approach. Ridge calls it “caring candor” and it is a part of the “Helping People Win At Work” philosophy that Ridge developed together with Ken Blanchard and later detailed in their book of the same name.

For Ridge and Blanchard, the focus is on setting clear goals, checking in on a regular basis to monitor progress against those goals, and then ensuring that managers are doing their part in providing frontline employees with the support and direction they need to succeed.

“At WD-40, the results have been phenomenal,” elaborates Witt. “They have some of the highest engagement scores I’ve ever seen and they have been setting sales records the past few years in the midst of a very soft economy. It obviously works!”

Three strategies for leaders

Interested in learning more about what managers in your organization—or you, yourself—can do to take some first steps in becoming a best boss? Here are Witt’s suggestions.

1. Set challenging goals. Expect the best from people by setting goals that stretch their abilities. Look beyond what people can currently do and set a stake in the ground at the next level of achievement. Hard goals encourage growth, demonstrate trust, and develop competence. Be sure to set these goals as a partnership—it conveys respect and garners buy-in.

2. Meet regularly. Conduct brief, focused meetings on a weekly basis to discuss progress against goals, identify roadblocks, and brainstorm solutions. Demonstrate your commitment to an employee’s success by sharing one of your most precious resources—your time and attention.

3. Provide feedback. Celebrate and recognize achievements. Provide redirection when necessary. Feedback shows that you are paying attention as a leader, consider the work important, and are invested in the employee’s development.

Witt reminds aspiring managers that leaders become “best bosses” by demonstrating skills and behaviors which can be learned. “Look back at your own experience and you’ll probably discover that your best boss brought out the best in you because he or she expected a lot and also supported your growth and development. That’s the one-two punch that creates high levels of engagement and performance!”

You can learn a lot about what people want in a leader by asking them! Over the years, I’ve had a chance to hear hundreds of people respond to the question, “Who was your best boss, and what was it about him or her that made them so special?” The answers, though wide-ranging, (and very personal) have consistently fallen into two main categories.

The first common characteristic focuses on relationships and support. People say that their best boss cared about them, gave them opportunities, and created a great working environment. They made work fun and they were supportive.

Second, there is the performance and expectations aspect. People will share that their work was demanding, meaningful, and that their boss expected a lot from them. They also share that their best boss saw qualities in them that they didn’t necessarily see in themselves.

In an article for Blanchard’s Ignite newsletter, I share some examples from Gallup, Southwest Airlines, and WD-40 Company to make the case for adopting a high support—high expectations workplace. You can read the complete article at this link, but in the meantime, here are some takeaways for creating this dual focus environment.

1. Set challenging goals. Expect the best from people by setting goals that stretch their abilities. Look beyond what people can currently do and set a stake in the ground at the next level of achievement. Hard goals encourage growth, demonstrate trust, and develop competence. Be sure to set these goals as a partnership—it conveys respect and garners buy-in.

2. Meet regularly. Conduct brief, focused meetings on a weekly basis to discuss progress against goals, identify roadblocks, and brainstorm solutions. Demonstrate your commitment to an employee’s success by sharing one of your most precious resources—your time and attention.

3. Provide feedback. Celebrate and recognize achievements. Provide redirection when necessary. Feedback shows that you are paying attention as a leader, consider the work important, and are invested in the employee’s development.
Leaders become “best bosses” by expecting a lot from their people AND also providing high levels of support along the way. Look back at your own experience and you’ll probably discover that your best boss brought out the best in you because he or she expected a lot and also supported your growth and development. That’s the one-two punch that creates high levels of engagement and performance!

“When people don’t take time out, they stop being productive.” ~ Carisa Bianchi

I started experiencing back pain around the time I turned 50. When I went to the doctor she told me, “John, you are at that age where every morning you will wake up with pain somewhere.” Wow! Talk about a wake-up call. Luckily, she didn’t leave it at that. She also gave me some specific stretching and strengthening exercises to help with the pain—and when I take the time to do them, they do help.

The reality is that without care and attention, things break down – our bodies, our minds, and our relationships. As we start this new year, I suggest that we each increase our capacity by taking time to regularly renew ourselves in each of the four dimensions of life – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.

• Increasing or maintaining your physical capacity includes getting regular physical activity, taking time for rest and relaxation, eating a balanced diet, and doing other activities that revitalize the body and give you energy. For many, getting too little sleep is a culprit. Remember what Andy Rooney said: “Go to bed. Whatever you’re staying up late for isn’t worth it.”

• To increase your mental capacity, consider activities such as keeping a journal, reading, taking up a hobby, or continuing your education—anything that broadens and strengthens the mind. Be a student of whatever field you choose. Read voraciously. Mark Twain stated: “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.”

• Activities that increase your emotional capacity can include regular social activity with friends and family, learning to listen with empathy, valuing the differences in others, increasing your circle of friends, and forgiving yourself and others. Forgiveness can be a power tool for increasing emotional capacity. As Lewis Smedes said: “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”

• Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, authors of The Power of Full Engagement, define spiritual capacity as “the energy that is unleashed by tapping into one’s deepest values and defining a strong sense of purpose.” Your spiritual capacity is a powerful source of motivation, focus, and resilience. You may build your spiritual capacity by connecting with nature, reading inspirational literature, living in integrity, listening to uplifting music, engaging in meditation and/or prayer, or other activities that nourish the soul.

Author Rumer Godden may have said it best: “Everyone is a house with four rooms: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.”

What are some things you plan to do in the new year to renew yourself?

About the author:

John Hester is a senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies who specializes in performance and self-leadership.

Managers and their direct reports are equally responsible for goal setting. Yet many organizations make it a one-person project. That leads to problems according to John Hester, a senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies®. In organizations where managers set goals without employee involvement, employees feel left out of the process. As a result, managers don’t get the buy-in they need. The employee has no fire or passion to achieve the goals. In some cases, resentment sets in.

In other companies, managers leave goal setting to their employees. While this may be comfortable to employees, it can lead to misalignment with overall organization goals, or can create targets that are focused more on existing skills that don’t create any growth or stretch.

For goal setting to work best, managers and employees need to work together to set goals that are aligned with organizational objectives, offer the right amount of challenge, and create buy-in from both parties.

Taking Individual Responsibility

An organization’s culture and norms play an important role in how individual managers and direct reports approach goal setting, but this doesn’t mean that managers and individual employees should settle for the status quo if it is not meeting their needs. In all cases, managers and direct reports have the ability to go above and beyond and ensure that in any work relationship, clear goals are established up front.

Hester reminds managers and direct reports alike that ultimately, you are responsible for your own career and for getting your needs met. In Hester’s opinion, you don’t want to make your career success completely dependent on the goal-setting skills of your manager. That’s too reactive—and too dependent of an approach.

Instead, Hester recommends that managers and employees take individual responsibility for setting clear goals each year. As he explains, “If I am an employee and I am not having the performance planning discussion that I should be having at the beginning of the year than I am going to initiate it. This will probably mean sitting down with my manager and saying, ‘I want talk with you about the key goals you want me to achieve this year. Here are some of my ideas, what do you think?’ As a direct report you have a responsibility to make sure that you are successful, effective, developing, and that you are doing what you can to be fully engaged.”

Special Advice for Managers

For managers looking to make the process easier for the people on their team, Hester recommends focusing on three key areas.

Approach goal-setting as a partnership. Recognize that performance planning is not something that you should do alone. This is something to be done in partnership with your team member. It’s a collaborative process. So the manager needs to know what the employee’s key areas of responsibility are, what is expected in the role, and what they want to see in terms of performance. The key is to have that discussion with the employee.

Make sure the goal is SMART (or SMMART). Anytime you set a goal, objective, or an assignment, you need to make sure that it meets the simple SMART criteria (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound). As Hester explains, “So many times when I asked employees how they receive their assignments they usually tell me it’s a casual hallway conversation or a quick email. And that’s it. There’s no discussion about specific targets, timelines, or measurement.”

Hester also believe that there should be a second “M” in the SMART acronym to account for employee Motivation. “This means the manager needs to additionally ask, ‘What is it about this goal that is motivating? What difference does it make in the organization, or to the team, or to the individual employee?’ So managers need to make sure that motivation is a part of the discussion and that they consider and inquire about an employee’s attitude toward the assignment.”

Diagnose competence and commitment levels. Finally, managers need to consider an employee’s individual competence and commitment level for a task. As Hester explains, “This is one of the basics of the Situational Leadership® II Model. For example, it’s a common mistake to assume that because a person is a veteran employee, they are experienced at any new task that might be set before them. This is often incorrect. It’s important that a manager find out about experience with a specific task and then partner with the employee to determine what they need in terms of direction and support to be successful with this particular assignment.”

Common Mistakes in Goal Setting

While good goal setting leads to increased performance, Hester also cautions against some common pitfalls to avoid.

1. Goals are not realistic. Stretch goals are great, but if they are out of reach they become demotivating and can even cause some employees to engage in unethical behavior to achieve them. In addition to making sure the goal is Attainable, goals should be monitored and adjusted as needed during the year.
2. Setting too many goals. When employees have too many goals they can easily lose track of what is important and spend time on the ones they “want” to do or that are easier to accomplish whether or not they are the highest priority.
3. Setting goals and then walking away. Goal setting is the beginning of the process, not an end in itself. Once goals are set, managers need to meet regularly to provide support and direction to help employees achieve their goals.
4. Setting a “how” goal instead of a “what” goal. Goals should indicate “what” is to be accomplished—the end in mind—not “how” it should be accomplished.

Benefits of Goal Setting if Managers Are Successful

Managers who take the time to spend the extra effort up front will recognize significant benefits down the road. Clear goals lead to clearer expectations, better performance-focused conversations, and ultimately, higher levels of performance across the organization.

Accountability is also easier with well-defined tasks. This is because follow-up conversations can focus on specific tasks instead of the person. As Hester explains, “This is very helpful and it keeps the manager out of conversations where they are saying something general like, ‘You’re not performing well.’ Instead, managers can point to the fact that an employee is not performing on this one goal, and can talk about what they can both do to make better progress.”

An extra side benefit is that working together on goals improves the relationship between managers and their direct reports. “That always pays dividends,” says Hester. “When people feel that their manager is truly invested in their success and they see their manager as a coach and partner helping them to succeed, their level of engagement and passion increases. It’s a clear, focused path that helps people perform at their best.”

It’s that time of year when we get together, give gifts, and rekindle relationships with people we haven’t seen since last year. No, no—not the holidays—I’m talking about the ongoing performance review season.

For the past several weeks (and several weeks ahead for procrastinators) managers around the world have been meeting with their direct reports to review last year’s goals, measure performance, and determine pay increases.

If you are in the middle of performance reviews with your people, here are two radical ideas inspired by a recent article Scott and Ken Blanchard wrote for Fast Company, The Best Gift Managers Can Give Their Employees This Season.

In the article, Scott and Ken identified that two of the most important ingredients missing in today’s manager-direct report conversations are growth and considering the employee’s agenda.

In some ways, that’s not surprising considering the cautious way most companies have been operating during our slow, tepid economic recovery. “Just lucky to have a job,” has become institutionalized after four years of a weak employment picture and little or no growth in many industries.

But 2013 feels different. There’s a small, but flickering sense of optimism in the air. (Maybe it’s because that Mayan calendar scare is over—it is, isn’t it?)

Are you ready to move forward? Here are three new ways of thinking. How could you add these components into your next performance management or goal setting conversation either as a manager or direct report?

1. Think growth. Yes, GROWTH! It’s time. People can only tread water for so long. Eventually, you have to start swimming somewhere. Developing new skills in your present job—and seeing the next step on your career path are both important factors that lead to happiness, well-being and better performance at work. What can you add to your list of skills during the coming year? What move can you make (even a small one) that will get you one step closer to your next career objectives?

2. Think connection. Who can help you along the way? There is only so much that you can do on your own and left to your own devices. We all need some help.

3. Think helping others. The late Zig Ziglar (who passed away earlier this year) was famous for identifying that, “You can get just about anything you want out of life as long as you are willing to help others get what they want.” But it has to begin with you. Who can you reach out to this week or next? Who can you help take the next step toward their career plans?
In their article for Fast Company Scott and Ken Blanchard share an important paradox for anyone in business to remember. The more you give, the more that comes back to you.

Add a little bit of giving into your work conversations in 2013. Talk about growth issues with your direct reports. Find out how you can help. You’ll be surprised at how much comes back to you during the course of the year.

Trust as a managerial competency? Yes, says Randy Conley, Trust Practice Leader at The Ken Blanchard Companies®, but only as an outward extension of core beliefs held deeply inside. Otherwise you are just going through the motions, attempting to appear trustworthy instead ofbeing trustworthy.

As Conley explains, “People know who they can trust and it’s based on a variety of signals that they pick up. Managers demonstrate trust in their people by the small things they do on a day-to-day basis. It can range from offering praise, increasing responsibility by giving additional tasks, or increasing an employee’s level of autonomy in their role.

“That’s why any skill development has to be built upon a foundation of authenticity. You have to have it right on the inside first. That’s when these tools work best. They help you identify blind spots that might be holding you back as a leader. But it should never be a substitute for genuinely trusting other people.

“This means the person I am with you in the office and at work is the person that I am at home. It’s an alignment of your values. Basically it’s being who you really are. John Wooden, the famous UCLA basketball coach described it best, ‘Character is what you do when no one is watching.’ There needs to be alignment between who you are at work and who you are outside of work.

“There is a fine line between manipulation and authenticity. That’s the shadow aspect of any model or behavioral prescription. For example, if you just approach it as a set of behaviors to influence people, you’re not going to get the traction and results you want. You have to be careful and not treat it from a public relations or spin perspective.”

How do managers get off track?

Everyone knows that trust is important, so how do so many well-meaning managers get off-track when it comes to building trusting relationships?

According to Conley, trust gets off-track when we forget about people and focus only on the product or the result. We get so wrapped up in meeting deadlines, hitting the numbers, or whatever goals we are pursuing that we forget about the relationship aspect.

Of course, goal accomplishment is vital, Conley reminds us, but it’s important to pursue it as a common goal. It’s a “give to get” process. If we neglect that relationship and the human element of it, trust suffers. That results in direct reports thinking to themselves, “All my boss really cares about is whether I get the work done.” That sets up a transactional relationship where everyone is focused on meeting their own needs. You’ll never get the level of performance that a deep commitment to a common goal will produce.

To reverse the process, Conley recommends asking yourself a key leadership question: “Are you here to serve—or be served?” Trusting relationships begin with leaders who are “others focused” instead of “self focused.”

“You can put whatever label you want on it, but it comes from a deeply held belief that my value and role as a leader is to bring out the best in you. It’s not about me, it’s about you. I think that’s the first and foremost core value that people recognize and respond to.” It’s seeing leadership as a higher calling. It’s a lofty aspiration, but that’s a good thing, according to Conley.

“Leaders would be well served to tap into a greater vision of what leadership is, or could be. It’s a noble profession. When you see it that way you recognize that you have to be a trustworthy individual. There’s no room for not being up-front with people, not being competent, or not being dependable and following through on your commitments. It is about having a different vision about what leadership is and what a leader does.”

The benefits of trust

When trust is present in a work relationship there are several benefits. Both sides understand the relationship and are committed to it. Good trustful relationships also create freedom for failure—within limits of course. We’re not talking about permission to fail continuously without consequences, but you are permitted and have a freedom for risk-taking. There’s a level of maturity and acceptance among the manager and direct report that it’s okay to make mistakes because they’ll be viewed as learning opportunities and a chance for us to grow and deepen our relationship.

Trust also builds an atmosphere of open communication that leads to better and more frequent checking in with each other. There’s also a level of confidence in each other’s ability and dependability.

Become a better leader

Conley believes that building trust is the number one leadership competency of the 21st century. But it’s important to remember that it starts on the inside first. In some ways, trust is just an extension of other good management skills and should be woven together with the other things a leader does on a day-to-day basis.

“Trust is a byproduct of all of the other managerial and leadership aspects and activities, duties, and responsibilities that you employ on a day-to-day basis. You become a more trustworthyleader by becoming a better leader.”