Vital to Business and to Life Itself!!!

Originally shared in A Daily Dose Of Leadership on June 25, 2020.

OK… It’s clear that a very select few ever make it through all that’s required to become a Navy SEAL, and thank God for each and every one who does! But regardless of what the rest of us have chosen to pursue, even the Bill’s of the world, developing A Cycle for Success just won’t be sustainable without a solid foundation. 

While I’ve typically kept this series focused on leadership and professional development, specifically with regards to how we can each make a positive impact with the teams we lead in a work environment, having a foundation of trust as we create A Cycle for Success in every area of our lives is crucial. And to that end, would success even be worth it if we had to build it without that foundation of trust?

If you’re at all familiar with the New Testament, you may recall this statement from Matthew 16:26 – “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”

Clearly, there’s quite a bit of precedence for the importance of trust in every area of our lives… But let’s be honest, not everyone has the same standard for all that really entails or what levels of compromise are acceptable. Nearly fifteen years ago, John Maxwell was asked by his publisher to write a book dealing with business ethics. (This was on the heels of Enron, Worldcom, and Madoff…) John declined their exact request stating that “There’s no such thing as business ethics, there’s just ethics. Either you have them or you don’t.”

I’m guessing you’ve also heard someone justify holding a team member accountable for something done in the workplace that they themselves would do without a second thought in their own personal lives, saying something along the lines of “my personal life is just that, personal…’ But if we hope to build a real and lasting cycle for success throughout our lives, can we ever intentionally separate the two?

In chapter two of Everyone Communicates, Few Connect, Connecting is ALL About Others, John shares this about the importance of trust across all areas of our lives: “Trust is vital to any business. In fact, it’s vital to life itself. Author and speaker Jeffrey Gitomer told me that trust is even more important than love!”

I could keep beating this horse, but the point should be abundantly clear by now… So here’s the challenge I’ll leave you with: What steps can you take on a daily basis to earn, maintain, and/or build a solid foundation of trust with each individual you interact with in EVERY area of your life? Remember, it’s never one and done… Trust can sometimes take years to establish but it can be lost in a single action!

In the next blog, we’ll take a look at how our actions in establishing (or losing) trust can impact the entire culture around us! Exciting and scary at the same time…