The Power of Trust to Succeed

Trust is Essential to your Success

The Power of Trust Page 2

Contents Trust is Essential to Your Success ............................................................................................................ 3

Delayed Gratification .............................................................................................................................. 3

Trust is pervasive ................................................................................................................................ 4

Trust is chemistry ................................................................................................................................ 4

What you can do ..................................................................................................................................... 5

And what are these behaviours? ........................................................................................................ 6

LeadershipAdvantEdge.com

LeaderShift! Action Guides are designed to provide you with simple and straightforward steps to develop

in a particular area of your leadership.

© Dr John Kenworthy – All Rights Reserved

Published by Leadership AdvantEdge

No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in any

database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Corporate Edge Asia Pte Ltd.

If you need permission, you’ll have to ask. Ask, because you never know (we may say yes).

The information in this document is accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of writing. As a

reader you need to accept full responsibility for your actions and should consult with a professional about

your own circumstances before following anything in the book. Results are not guaranteed (Heck, nothing

in life is guaranteed).

Further, the author and publisher have used their best efforts to proof and confirm the content of the files,

but you should proof and confirm information such as dates, measurements, and any other content for

yourself. The author and publisher make no warranties of any kind, express or implied, with regard to that

content or its accuracy.

For more information, please write to:

Leadership AdvantEdge

18D Holland Drive 04-429

Singapore 275018

Phone: 65 9170 5908 (If you need to call, check the time in SG before calling).

E-mail: johnk @leadershipadvantedge.com

Website: www.leadershipadvantedge.com | Facebook & Twitter: drjohnkenworthy

Published in Singapore (Where else?). Any person flouting the above rules, will be liable for copyright

infringement, plus will be sent (at your own cost of course) to pick panda dung at the Singapore Zoo.

The Power of Trust Page 3

Trust is Essential to Your Success

Trust is the most fundamental building block of any relationship whether in business,

politics, marriage, family or friendships. In the real world, trust signifies different

things to different people but it frequently boils down to one point: trust is

essential to your success.

Once lost, rebuilding trust is one of the most difficult things to accomplish for the

reason that the thought of the betrayal can forever haunt the aggrieved. Rebuilding

trust is definitely tough, but it’s not something that can be ignored.

Delayed Gratification

There's a well-known psychological study, conducted by Walter Mischel in the 1960s,

which explored delayed gratification in four-year-olds. Individually, children were

seated in front of a marshmallow and the researcher told them that they could eat the

marshmallow right then, but if they waited for the researcher to return from a brief

errand, they would receive a second marshmallow.

Some kids ate the marshmallow within

seconds, but others waited up to 20 minutes

for the researcher to return. 14 years later, the

researchers found out that the children who

had delayed gratification were more

trustworthy, more dependable, more self-

reliant and more confident than the children

who had not controlled their impulses.

Trust is largely an emotional act, based on a

prediction of reliance. It is fragile, and as an

egg shell, one slip can shatter it.

Gorging yourself on dessert or cake is an emotional

act. Trust is also an emotional act. Which emotion do

you choose to win the battle inside yourself?

The Power of Trust Page 4

Trust is pervasive

Trust pervades every aspect of our everyday lives closely. It is fundamentally

essential in the healthy functioning of all of our relationships with others. It is even

tied to our wealth: in a Scientific American article, Dr. Paul J Zak,

a neuroeconomist at Claremont Graduate University, found out that trust is between

the strongest known predictors of a country's wealth: nations with low levels of trust

are likely to be poor. In line with Dr. Zak, societies with low levels of trust are poor,

for the reason that the inhabitants undertake too few of the long-term investments

that originate jobs and raise incomes. Such investments depend on people trusting

others to fulfil their contractual duties.

Trust is chemistry

In searching to comprehend what was physically happening in the human brain that

instilled trust, he found out that oxytocin, a hormone and neurotransmitter,

increases our propensity to trust others in the absence of threatening signals. We are

indeed wired to trust each other, but, as Dr. Zak points out, our life experiences may

"retune" the oxytocin to a different "set point", and thus to different levels of trust all

through the course of life. When we are brought up in a secure, nurturing and caring

background, our brains release more oxytocin when somebody trusts us resulting in

our reciprocating that trust. By contrast, early experiences of pressure, uncertainty

and isolation interfere with the development of a trusting disposition and reduce

oxytocin levels.

In today's untrusting climate, it is not

surprising that study after study shows a

decline in the trust that individuals have in

business and political leaders, and in

institutions. The Edelman Trust

Barometer for 2009 found out that nearly two

out of every three adults surveyed in 20

countries trust corporations less now than they

did a year ago. And a 2004 study by Towers

Perrin, shows that only 44% of junior workers

(those gaining less than $50,000 per year)

trust their employers to say them the truth. This is

an alarming statistic, specifically given how much time, effort and concern are

expended in crafting leadership communications to workers.

Levels of trust in all parts of society are

declining. Is it because we are so

caught up in ourselves that we forget

about others?

The Power of Trust Page 5

Even although we are faced with a disaster in trust, and have ample examples of

leaders who have eroded their employees', customers' and shareholders' trust, I

believe that the majority of leaders walk the path of trustworthiness. If truth be told,

it might be harrowing for many leaders if they receive feedback that others do not

find them trustworthy. But being trustworthy, in someone's eyes, consists of their

own perceptions, and can be strongly influenced by the fracture of trust in the world

around them. Indeed, people do not automatically trust leaders nowadays. Trust

requires to be earned by means of diligence, fidelity and applied effort.

If lack of trust is an issue which causes you

concern, what can you do to deal with

perceptions of trust? Here are some quick

suggestions:

What you can do

Monitor your usage of "I" in your communications. Do an audit of your emails, for

example, and see how normally you use "I" in preference to "we". Peter Drucker said:

"The leaders who work most successfully, it gives the impression to me, never

mention 'I.' And that's not for the reason that they have educated themselves not to

mention 'I.' They do not think 'I.' They think 'we‘; they think 'team.' They comprehend

their job to be to come to the team function. They accept obligation and do not

sidestep it, but 'we‘ gets the credit. This is what builds trust, what permits you to get

the activity done."

Organizations commonly spend considerable energy and effort in team building

initiatives; this includes workshops, retreats, and adventure type experiences. While

all of these have their place, if organizations need to increase contribution and

enhance teamwork, they need to get started with trust. It's the benchmark of healthy

team relationships; it's a very basic process. It's all about individual pattern. Do

individuals behave in a trustworthy manner or not? There is only a pass or fail here.

The Power of Trust Page 6

And what are these behaviours?

We all instinctively know them, but from time to time we require to call to mind

ourselves of what they are. Ask yourself:

Do I share information that I know is useful to others, or do I withhold it?

Do I treat everyone with kindness and compassion?

Do I try to do well in my dealings with others?

Do I follow through on my commitments, though it is at considerable personal

expense?

Do I seize opportunities to encourage others?

Am I just as glad about others' achievements as I am of my own?

Do I consistently strive to deliver superb work?

Is "candid" a quality people would readily characteristic to me?

Trust is power. It's the power to inspire and

influence. It's the glue that bonds us to each

other; that strengthens relationships and

turns threads of connections into steel

cables. Like four-year-olds trusting that

there will be a second marshmallow, can

your people trust that your word is your

bond?

Leadership is complicated work. As George Washington told,

"I can promise nothing but purity of intentions, and, in carrying these into the end

result, fidelity and diligence."

Seeking success? One thing is for certain,

without trust, you will not succeed!

The Power of Trust Page 7

If you haven’t gone through the questions yet, go back and do it now. Remember that

applying best practices with discipline and consistency, even if the actual steps seem

trite or obvious, is what leads to results.

Thanks so much for reading this LeaderShift! Action Guide – if you have any feedback or

comments you can reach me at johnk@LeadershipAdvantEdge.com

Don’t settle,

John

If you find anything that bugs you, please click on the bug

above to send me an email. Nothing is too small or too big.

And if I can, I’ll be sure to fix it. Email me at:

johnk@LeadershipAdvantEdge.com