Building Trust In The Workplace

Now more than ever trust is a critical component to the success and performance of leaders and of a business.  It would seem that to some businesses Ethics, Values and Trust are cheap dispensable commodities to be put aside if it will sell a few more widgets, newspapers, or get them closer to a large shareholder dividend.

Then again I know from conversations with my clients and their staff the importance and value of building ethical trustworthy relationships as a route to sustained business growth.  They’re not resting on their laurels here either and the results are speaking for themselves.

Last year I did a trust masterclass with Sue Swanborough HR Director for General Mills UK & Ireland.  The feedback was fantastic and this year we’re doing it again. However in this masterclass we’re notching it up a few gears.  Last year our masterclass was packed with the basics, this year we’re doing an advanced version.  Both Sue and I will be sharing our experience, key learnings, and the things that make the difference in the practical world of business.

On this tele conference call we’ll be discussing amongst other things:-

* Why trust is an inside job first and foremost

* Authenticity in leadership and it’s impact on trust

* Common behaviours that undermine trust and credibility, yet are often seen as acceptable in the workplace.

* Plus we’ll open the lines so you can ask your questions direct, as well as giving you the opportunity to send in your questions beforehand.

Remember high trust organisations out perform low trust ones by 278%.   Not only that customers aren’t making purchase decisions based on price alone, trust and credibility are primary influences and fundamental to building brand loyalty.

To get all the details and secure your place on this complimentary master class click here.

Take Responsibility – If You Won’t Own It Why Should Anyone Else?

If at the end of every day you had to sign your name against what you’ve done.  The conversations you had with staff, customers, suppliers.  The decisions you’ve made.  The products and services you’ve shipped out the door.  If you had to put your name against it to take full responsibility would you?

Quality, standards, ethics, values, trust are all key facets of business but to what extent do you pay them lip service rather than live by them?  How often to these aspects seem to be at odds with making a profit?

How often is there a decision to be made which if you follow your values will take you down one route but if you sell out on your values (yes that’s what you’re doing) will take you down another, often appearing more profitable?  It’s hard at times, and usually these times are at the beginning of practicing this habit.  It’s harder to stay with your values and keep looking for a solution that will deliver profitability to the business, than it is to go with the obvious profitable solution that asks you to ignore a value or two.  However as it becomes clear both to yourself and to others that compromising on values isn’t an option then finding profitable and ethical solutions becomes easier.

Organisations have values they claim to live by.  It’s the leaders that are then beholden to live by them.  It’s not that organisations are ethical, or unethical, it’s that the people within choose to act ethically or not.  Makes your bum cheeks squeak a bit when you think of it like that.  It takes the anonymity out of it and brings it back where it needs to be, personal.  As a leader you have to walk the talk – well OK you don’t have to, but then of course if you don’t you’ve said it doesn’t matter to the rest of your staff.

The tide is turning on tolerating unethical behaviour.  Yes we’re accountable to investors to make a good ROI, yet if we cut corners and compromise on quality, standards and ethics, we run the risk of being found out, and then been called to account.  We only need to look at the News of The World to get a timely reminder of where our daily actions and choices can lead us.

So is there anything today you’d hesitate to put your name to?  There is still time to change all that.

Business Growth – Values

In times of economic uncertainty, recession and tough markets, business growth is even more challenging.  Here is the second of 3 videos in which Ruth Sanderson explains critical components that enable business growth.  The second component are the company’s values.  Although equally important are the leaders values too.

Business Growth – Vision

In times of economic uncertainty, recession and tough markets, business growth is even more challenging.  Here is the first of 3 videos in which Ruth Sanderson explains critical components that enable business growth.  The first is Vision, which is key for business stability too.

Often in the overwhelm of staying a float and finding new business leaders can overlook the importance of communicating the vision.

Collaborative leadership, the rise of the wiki leader

The world’s economic structures and information systems have changed phenomenally over the years and it’s had an impact on leadership.  First there was the world wide web, then came google domination, now it’s twitter, linkedin and facebook.  Where we used to expect the leader to have all the answers and equally all the power, there is now emerging a more dynamic situation. 

Gone are the industrial days of autocratic decision making and dutiful employees seeking rewards and promotions up a linear ladder.  The information days have seen a open access to information, take wikipedia and open source programming as two examples.  Perhaps now we’re seeing the rise of wiki leadership, this dynamic, collaborative style where the leader knows they don’t have the answer to everything, yet they’re confident that someone somewhere will.  Where ideas can flow freely up and down the organisation, which now means they flow freely around the organisation.  Where the leader has the confidence to ask questions out beyond the company walls, take LinkedIn groups as an example. 

Wiki leadership, now there’s a thought.  How much of your leadership style and approach is to solve, answer and provide some form of parental role and how much of your style is dynamic, open and receptive.

Are you resisting the hero’s journey?

Our life is one huge journey, made up of a series of smaller journeys.  The choice for all of us is whether we see ourselves as the hero or the observer.  The role we choose to take determines our success in life, and by success I mean our ability to handle life and come out on top.

The hero’s journey is a map that can guide us as we negotiate our way through life and all it’s challenges and opportunities for growth.  It is the universal story of human development and if it didn’t work so well, we wouldn’t have a film industry, tv or best selling books.  What’s more for many of us that’s the only medium through which we learn about the hero’s journey, as a passive construct, rather than understanding it in a practical and personal context.

I’ve been working with and teaching the hero’s journey for many years now and I’ve been persuaded (ok it didn’t take much), by Chris Cooper of Be More Achieve More to share more of what I know with his clients on a teleseminar on the 27th July.  So you’re also invited too.  

During the call I’ll be answering questions like:-

- What is the Heroes Journey?

- How can it help us in a personal and a business context?

- What are the signs we’re resisting taking the journey and what are the implications?

 - What resources do we have access to that can help us through our journey?

 Plus there will be time for you to ask me your questions.

I’m currently teaching several coaches to use this in their work, here’s what one of them recently sent to me after her last coaching session “Just wanted to say a huge thank you , you are simply amazing and I can’t thank you enough for the insight you have given me.” 

 I do know what a difference understanding the hero’s journey has on life and so I hope you’ll join Chris and I on the 27th July at 8pm.  To register fill in the form below

Should Character or Policies Lead in the General Election

2 days to go and it’s the general election here in the UK.  This time around the character of the leaders seems to have raised prominence compared to previous years.  Now that could just be my memory; and from conversations over the last few weeks some people seem to be at odds with the fact that character leadership is playing a role as opposed to the focus being about policies.

So why is the character of the party leaders so prevalent and been commented on so much?  I think the answer can be summed up by the word Trust.

Trust – We trust people who are authentic or genuine and have the skills to do what they say they’re going to do.  In other words it’s a combination of character and competence.

Competence – The skills to carry out the task required.  Each of us will be looking at the parties and their leaders and making an assessment, do we think the leader is competent to do the job.

Gordon Brown has had a chance to demonstrate his leadership skills as a prime minister, David Cameron and Nick Clegg have both yet to prove themselves.

Which leaves us with character.  This is the personality of the leader, but it’s also their values and beliefs.  What does this person stand for?  We don’t have to like them, this isn’t about looking for a new friend.  Rather it’s whether or not I believe that this person’s values, beliefs and traits are the right ones to lead and represent our country’s needs in conversations with other PM’s and Presidents.  The final check is and do I believe they will walk this talk, be authentic and act with integrity in the face of danger and war.  Or are they going to have a personality transplant depending on who they’re with and what’s going on, and whether they’re miked up, or not.

Each party has had the traditional marketing campaign:-

-         Why you should choose me to represent you for the next 4 years.

-         Why I’m trustworthy enough to be responsible for something as immense as a country.

-         What improvements do we commit to make over those 4 years.

-         How do we plan do make these improvements happen.

And depending on what you’re looking for you’ll get to decide just how credible they’ve been in getting this message across.

This year I suspect that rather than the nuances of who’s committing to do exactly what with the NHS, National debt, etc.  it’s going to be about who do we trust to do the right thing.  We live in ever increasing change,  they could promise one thing today and then something happens the other side of the world and it’s all change.  We wouldn’t expect them to keep going with a promise if it was now the clear path to fiscal suicide (or what ever).  We’re looking for the leader with the character to be fearlessly authentic and lead with integrity.  Why is this so important, because we’ve witnessed several experiences where the values of a leader have been at odds with how they were portrayed or what we expected, and we as a nation have paid a price.  The banks, and the Iraq war are two significant experiences.  As an aside, recently in the sporting arena we have Tiger Woods and John Terry.  The backlash isn’t so much about their infidelity rather these people were seen as role models.  Being the captain of the England squad is a high profile and responsible position, it isn’t just about football, the football is the competence aspect of the trust equation, it’s also about their character.   Of course there also still ripples from various ministers and their expense claims.

We could ignore the past, we could ignore the impact of character, but I think that would be to the detriment of our country.  So then who do you think is the UK’s equivalent of Obama, our hope for the future of the UK?

Building Trust in the Workplace – Authentic Leadership Master Class

Trust is a critical component to the success and performance of leaders and of a business.

There is a very simple equation:-

High Trust = High Speed + Low Cost

Low Trust = Slow Speed + High Costs

Look at the performance of your business, team, a specific relationship. Do things happen quickly or is everyone second guessing, double checking, re-doing and in the worst case preparing to cover and protect themselves should something go wrong?

Trust is a multiplier effect.  High trust people get the significant projects; you wouldn’t leave your child with someone you didn’t trust and a business makes no different decisions.

• High trust people get promoted and receive more of the company’s resources.
• Collaboration, engagement, innovation, job fulfilment all increase when there is trust.
• The ability to attract and retain talent increases where there is trust.
• Revenue, customer loyalty and referrals also increase if there is trust.

In fact research shows that high trust organisations out perform low trust ones by 278%

On April 15th at 4pm I’ll be interviewing Sue Swanborough, HR Director at General Mills UK, a company that yearly features in the Fortune Top 100 companies to work for.  Sue is an expert in trust and its impact and application throughout the business, from board level to shop floor.  The results of this have been evident in the business results achieved.

In the past Sue, a science graduate has worked in a number of fmcg businesses including Boots, Mars and most recently General Mills. She has moved cross functionally through R&D, supply chain, logistics and manufacturing before joining HR. She has held a number of generalist and specialist roles covering the full spectrum of HR. Her passion and expertise lies in cultural and leadership development through building trust to deliver excellent business results.

On this 75 minute tele conference call we’ll be discussing:-

• The impact trust has on the performance of a business
• What leaders need to pay attention to
• The top 3 mistakes leaders make and how this endangers the levels of trust they have
• Key strategies to build trust – whatever the size of your business
• Plus we’ll open the lines so you can ask your questions direct, as well as giving you the opportunity to send in your questions beforehand.

To secure your place and get a hard copy of the call, including transcript, follow this link – building trust

Authentic Leadership Development – Using archetypes to improve your emotional intelligence

Ruler seeks Magician to help restore the kingdom

Jester seeks Creator to get right outside the box

Damsel in distress seeks knight, must have own horse.

The examples at the beginning may seem like strange lonely heart ads, but they’re universal patterns that we function around.

Take great movies like ET, Harry Potter, Pretty Woman, Cinderella, and those up for Oscars this year like Avatar.  Each is so powerful and successful because the characters embody a clear archetype and the story line is one we’re familiar with.  King Arthur needs his Merlin for Camelot to be healthy

An Archetype then is a root word that encodes a complete pattern.  If I said his leadership style is little Hitler you know exactly what I mean.

A picture may paint a thousand words, but archetypes convey everything in the word.  Archetypes carry the seed and energy in a universal language.  What’s so powerful is that you respond at a deep unconscious level and either the archetype draws you in or you pull away quickly.

Within business we’re also running our personal archetypal patterns.

The thing about archetypes is that over time we develop our favourites, and we have those that we out and out reject.  Yet all have their place and purpose.  I remember when I first worked with my archetypes.  My destroyer had in the past done just that, destroyed, so when I really needed to let go of things that no longer served a purpose I didn’t, I hung on, and hung on, and then experienced situations where ‘the baby went out with the bath water’.  My experiences with that archetype hadn’t been pleasant, so when it was required, it ran me rather than me using it.  Not good, and even less so as a leader.  We can do all the Emotional Intelligence stuff in the world, but trust me when I say that Archetypes run much deeper, so if you haven’t got a handle on them then you can only go so far.  Now of course things are different, I can sense when the destroyer is required, so I pay attention, what do I need to let go of  – it could be something physical, like a good office tidy up, it could be mental, like a belief, it could be emotional, maybe I’m not being true to how I feel and I’ve been ignoring myself.  When I know what it is I can work with it, and the destroyer is an Allie.  I also appear way more Emotionally Intelligent – and I am, because I’m paying attention to signals from the core of who am I.

Archetypes then are free powerful resources with a specific purpose, if you’re not aware of them, then they run you, when you are aware of them then you can use them.

As a leader your success – and ability to run a productive business with a  highly engaged workforce – is determined by your level of self awareness.  If you’re ready to take huge leaps forward then join me in April where I’ll be helping 12 leaders understand their archetypal patterns, access these phenomenally powerful resources and use them productively.  You can find more information here on our Archetypal leadership development course or contact us to secure your place.

Authentic Success Club – Silver Membership

We want to take this opportunity to introduce you to the Authentic Success Club™, designed to propel your leadership and your life to a whole new level.  From gems of knowledge to exclusive networking opportunities, from continuous learning and application in the real world, this is about being uniquely you, shining bright, thinking big, and settling for nothing less than what you deserve – which of course is the very best.

The Authentic Success Club™ has been designed for leaders with a desire to reach their full potential and leave a welcome legacy in their chosen field of business.

Who you are, what you stand for and how you make people feel, are just as important as the thing you sell.  As a leader when you walk into the room what do you bring with you – and when you leave what do you leave behind?

Introducing The Silver Tier Of The Authentic Success Club – Delivering Pragmatic And Powerful Information And Strategies To Help You Take Your Authentic Leadership To The Next Level

Are you a leader who is ready to step things up to the next level? Are you ready to make 2010 your best year ever? Would you like to learn proven strategies from a proven entrepreneurial leader? Have you wanted to be a part of a powerful, ongoing business program… but you’re on a tight budget?

Well that’s why Ruth is offering the Silver tier of her Authentic Success Club.

Ruth designed the Authentic Success Club based on her experiences in personally working with hundreds of leaders as well as her experiences in working with her own mentors and coaches. She wanted a club with scalable levels of support and mentoring — with options for all leaders whatever their level in the organisation.

Silver is ideal for junior to middle leaders or small business owners who are ready to take their career and business to the next level — at very little cost!

Register for the first quarter (which begins in February), where Ruth will guide you through the seminal text Think and Grow Rich.  Plus you’ll get ring side access to the Master Class on Building Trust in the workplace, with Sue Swanborough, HR Director for General Mills UK.

This club is packed with value – here are the exact details of what you get, including a one off bonus but you need to act before the 28th January to get it.

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