Jump On the Seesaw – Lead With Trust

Believing in your team and practicing trust will change your organizational culture.

What you believe about your team and your ability to communicate that, as the leader, plays a vital role in the growth and direction of your organization. It serves both you and your team to express your beliefs often and clearly—specifically the positive. Every day, we have an opportunity to display with both word and action that we believe in who they are as a member of the team and that what they bring to the table is vital to our success.

“When people trust each other, however, they work together more effectively and handle conflicts more maturely. In business, leaders are better able to create loyalty and confidence among stakeholders—their employees, customers, and ecosystem partners—and solve problems more quickly. “- Punit Renejen | CEO of Deloitte Company

This belief profoundly impacts how we lead a team and our ability to be led by the team. Yes, we, too, are being led by our team.

It takes a lot of trust to get on a seesaw with someone. If they bail, you crash to the ground!

Imagine you and your team on a seesaw—they are on the ground while you are in the air. While you are looking over your team’s heads, they have a clear view of what’s under you; at the same time, you can see above them and behind them. This crucial perspective requires trust from both parties. They must trust that you can and will communicate what they may be missing, and you must trust them to do the same.

Leadership is no longer “I am the boss, do what I say,” but far more of an invitation to co-collaborate. We as leaders are learning how to trust that casting a clear vision for where we’re going, inviting others in, and trusting our counterparts may be where we need to grow. As people-leaders, we must remember that raising one’s awareness of their personal strengths and empowering them to use those is one of the places we can serve our organization best. The individual gifts your team members bring to the table will far exceed our expectations as we learn to lead with trust.

As you learn to push off the ground and trust the people countering your strengths and weaknesses, those very same people will follow your lead. They also learn what it looks like to lead with trust—knowing that you will point out what you see and rally around them as they wrestle with and forge ahead in the carrying out of ideas, solutions, and/or developing new products/services.

Let’s be leaders who trust our counterparts. Because counterparts, when trusted from the start, tend to reciprocate with trust. And it will take trust to get people to buy into where the organization should ultimately go. Trust in each other begets a more robust relationship while empowering each team member to do their best work.

At DRYVE Leadership Group, we want to help you build an organizational culture that exudes trust and cohesively moves together in the same direction. Contact us today!