Trust Is An Outcome

As a person who is driven by outcomes, I loved this statement: “Trust is an outcome, a result of the behaviors we use in our interactions with others” (Randy Conley, p. 72). I started the second half of the great book Simple Truths of Leadership: 52 Ways To Be A Servant Leader and Build Trust, Making Common Sense Common Practice , Ken Blanchard and Randy Conley. In this half, Randy takes the lead discussing trust in leadership. In Simple Truth #27 entitled “Leadership Begins With Trust” Randy told us that when trust is established, “Creativity, innovation, productivity, efficiency, and morale flourish” (p. 75). That’s why I love that Randy calls trust an outcome, because it is so tangible. When trust is there we feel it and when it is not we really feel it.

While some organizations and leaders still use the so called, golden handcuff (showing up with cupcakes, pizza in the break room, or the kitschy trinkets) approach for attempting to get employee satisfaction and engagement, I believe that building a culture of trust is what makes a meaningful difference. It is an outcome. One of the challenges with the random perks approach is that these perks are being given by someone who is not taking the time to build relationships and trust. It comes down to walking our talk, keeping our promises and aligning our values with our behaviors. If we do this we should be constantly growing the trust of others. The old adage “actions speak louder than words” applies here.

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