Trust... Can You Hear It

In Stephen Covey’s book The Speed of Trust, co-authored by Rebecca R. Merrill, there is a summary on page 214 of Behavior #11 ‘Listen First’ which reads as follows…

 

Listen before you speak. Understand. Diagnose. Listen with your ears – and your eyes and heart. Find out what the most important behaviors are to the people you’re working with. Don’t assume you know what matters most to others. Don’t presume you have all the answers – or all the questions.

 

This book is an excellent resource for discovering how trust can support your goals and the goals of those you serve. This was also a resource in the sessions we created for the Solutions Vault on Trust. The reason I highlighted Behavior #11 ‘Listen First’ is because Stephen Covey suggests we listen with our heart.

 

 

 

This is a powerful idea, and one that is at the core of connecting our actions with the deepest needs of our clients. While trust is built over time, it only takes a moment to listen deeply. Doing so is like planting a seed in rich soil, so that it might grow in strength and beauty.

 

 

 

If this seems a distant correlation to the demanding terrain of the business world, consider this…

 

 

 

Everything you achieve is a byproduct of the trust others have given to you.

 

Where is this more evident than your first job. With no experience, a lot of energy, and the hope that you might land your first job, you set out to find your place in the working world. The adventure may have taken you to a restaurant, an office, a local park, painting houses, or mowing lawns in the neighborhood. The common thread in every case if that someone gave their trust to you. Before that trust was given to you, they were willing to listen. Whether you were met with skepticism, openness, or something in between, someone had to listen long enough to determine that they would give you a chance; that they would give you their trust.

 

 

 

The discussion of trust is always powerful and important; at this time in our shared American history, long after Enron, trust remains a rare element of corporate relationships.

 

 

 

So, this is what I ask you: Are you listening with your heart to your clients, employees, partners, associates, and others? Are you taking time to build the foundation of deep understanding that is required to foster a strong relationship? Are you applying your awareness of your customers needs in service to them, or are you exploiting the needs of your customers in service to you?

 

I know these are tough questions, which is why you don’t have to answer right now. Just listen with your heart and take time to find out if you can hear trust being shared between you and your employees, customers, and others. If you aren’t sure, here’s a few examples of how trust sounds…

 

 

 

• “Thanks John, I knew I could count on you!”
• “I’ll take your word for it.”
• "I’ll leave it up to you.”
• “Get it back to me whenever you like.”
• “I’ll leave a key for you under the mat.”

 

You can hear trust, you simply have to listen closely to realize it’s presence, or it’s absence.

 

 

 

Listening with your heart is how you plant a seed of listening and being heard deeply enough to create strong and durable roots. These are the roots that grow into a deep and abiding trust, with listening being one of many seeds of trust, you control the depth at which each seed is planted, the depth being equal to the strength of that element of trust.

 

 

 

Build a Flexible Strategy Plan

The word “strategy” is from the Greek strategia, which means “office of a general” which itself comes from the Greek word strategos, meaning “general”.

The military roots of the word “strategy” and the actions taken to fulfill a strategy create your battle plan for achieving success. When you evaluate the training actions in which you are currently engaged, what do you see? Do you find areas of fault? Are there places where improvement is important? Do you see several areas of complete success?

The key to building a strategic plan is to include flexibility as part of your strategy.

Consider this 4-minute video from www.strategicframing.com about how decisions are rewarded and viewed.

Then consider how you can use information from this video to affect how you view past decisions as you start to build future strategies.

Three Questions Video Review

1.What stood out for you in the video?

2.What did you already know?

3.What do you want to apply right away?

It is true that we can only make a decision based on the information we have at hand.

When you are tasked with building a strategic plan for training and development, you must work with the data you have today. The data in the future may look different than you expected, knowing this is a possible reality is why flexibility must be part of your strategic planning results.

How to Ensure Flexibility in Your Strategic Plan

The best way to ensure flexibility in your strategic development process is to avoid pretending that you can see the future. What may look certain today, can and will change. With that in mind here is a simple strategy for building flexibility into your planning process.

1.Plan for expansion (+)

2.Plan for neutrality (=)

3.Plan for contraction (-)

These three factors are a minimum number of variables that should be part of your strategic planning process. When you are seeking to train and develop your personnel, if you are only planning for contraction, when demand increases growth will take you by surprise, you will find yourself understaffed. The ability to have at least three paths in mind allows you to apply the most effective strategy to the situaion at hand. It is important to avoid judging past decisions as good or bad based on emerging information. This can be a challenge, but is one worth addressing.

Your Next Move

As you begin to craft a strategic plan for training your personnel, stay focused on the desired outcome, the facts you have now, and the ability to remain flexible as you gain new information. There is no error in making an informed decision as long as you are prepared to self-correct if new information demands a different response.