What is the first emotion you feel when you receive an email, text, or phone call from your boss that says, “I need to speak with you?” Is it interest? Joy? Eagerness? Or a positive sense that something good is about to transpire? Or is it dread? Suspicion? Concern? A foreboding sense of doom or even outright fear? My experience has shown that most people’s reaction is the latter. Their first thought tends to be, “Did I do something wrong?” Why is that? Part of it has to do with human nature. Our brains are hardwired to be threat-detecting machines. We are constantly assessing our environment ..read more

How much time do you think it took you to read this sentence? The average person reads approximately 238 words per minute, so that 13-word sentence probably took you about 3.25 seconds to read. How long do you think it takes you to make an initial assessment of another person’s trustworthiness? Try 1/10th of a second. A study by two Princeton psychologists, Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov, revealed that people assess the facial features of others in milliseconds and form judgements about the person’s trustworthiness, among other traits. Although Willis’ and Todorov’s study was remarkable f ..read more

Recently, I’ve been working with a number of mid-level leaders (e.g., Directors) who are looking to make the move into the ranks of senior leadership (V.P. and beyond). They’re at that in-between stage in their leadership career where they have significant responsibilities in leading their own teams but aren’t always the ones making the strategic decisions that affect how their teams operate. These mid-level leaders have the challenge of translating the strategic priorities of the organization into everyday activities their teams will embrace and execute. If you are a mid-level leader, you kno ..read more

Free 5-Week Series on Restoring Lost Trust A myth about trust is that it takes a long time to build and just a second to break. That can be true in the most egregious cases, but generally speaking, trust is gradually eroded over time by repeated violations. Just as a hillside abruptly collapses after a long period of erosion, so trust is suddenly lost when a relationship suffers too many transgressions of trust. The good news is that trust is incredibly resilient and can be restored if both parties are committed to the process. That’s why I’m inviting you to join me for the five-week Sum ..read more

My experience has shown that many leaders take trust for granted. They assume people trust them by virtue of their title or position, when the reality is they aren’t as trusted as they think they are. A recent survey by PWC reported a 15-point gap between leaders who believe employees highly trust their company (84%) and what the employees reported (69%). Ironically, building and maintaining trust is an issue that most leaders agree is critically important, but few have a plan to achieve it. A survey by YPO showed 96% of chief executives said building and maintaining trust was a high prio ..read more

Let’s be honest. Many leaders are suspicious of remote employees’ work habits. “I know remote employees aren’t working eight hours a day,” said a leader when I recently asked him how his organization was dealing with remote/hybrid workers. He didn’t have any specific data to support his conclusion, but it was clearly his perception that people working remotely weren’t putting in the same effort as those in the office. Keeping an eye on workers This leader’s perception is not an outlier, as Microsoft’s 2022 Work Trend survey showed that 85% of leaders doubt their remote workers are being produ ..read more

One of the things I love most about the field of trust is its depth and breadth. Trust is multi-dimensional, and for a trust geek like me, it’s easy (and fun!) to get lost exploring all its nooks and crannies. Early childhood and life experiences, beliefs, values, gender, nationality, culture, age, and personality are among the factors that influence both how we view trust and our willingness to trust others. Of those, personality is probably the one factor that I get asked about most often when I’m helping leaders build trust with others. Personality, like trust, is a concept with many compon ..read more

Employee experience can be defined as the journey an employee takes with your organization over the course of their employment. Everything from the way they experience recruitment, interviewing, onboarding, training, career development, performance management, recognition, rewards, and even the way they exit the organization makes up their overall experience. Employee experience is in the spotlight because of the importance of retention and engagement issues in today’s marketplace. Organizations are competing for the best and brightest workers who won’t jump ship for the next shiny new offer t ..read more

The Leadership Development Carnival, sponsored by Weaving Influence and the Lead Change Group, is a monthly publication of thought leadership from some of the brightest minds in the field of leadership. Grab a cup of your favorite beverage, sit back, and enjoy reading this month’s edition which features the “best of 2022” from this renowned group of experts. Training Want a good training model? Look no further than Top Gun, the real thing, not the movies. Check out Top Gun Rules and follow Wally Bock of Three Star Leadership. Team Building In Establishing an Environment for Growth, Priscilla A ..read more

“People don’t resist change; they resist being controlled.” That’s simple truth #46 in my book, Simple Truths of Leadership: 52 Ways to Be a Servant Leader and Build Trust, co-written with Ken Blanchard. The truth is most people don’t actually resist change itself. They resist being told to change and forced to go along with it. In reality, they resist being controlled. They resent not having a choice. Choice is an incredibly powerful psychological need. In the world of motivation theory, it’s commonly accepted that humans have three core psychological needs: autonomy, relatedness, and compete ..read more