Latest / Straight To Voicemail / What role does trust play in leadership? | Denise Healy, CEO and Co-founder, Streets2Schools
Transcript
- Amanda Smith (00:00): Amanda Smith Trust is one of those things. Everyone says matters, and yes, I agree it does, but I've been thinking a lot lately about how no one talks about really how it shows up in leadership. So I called Dr. Denise Healy to find out as the CEO of Streets to Schools. Denise has built a culture where trust is a value and a tool for decision making. She really embraces letting her team challenge her ideas and models radical candor herself, because her belief is without those two, you can't have an environment where innovation thrives because trust has to come first. So when I asked her, what role does trust play in helping leaders achieve their goals, here's what she had to say. Denise Healy, Ph.D. (01:00): Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system. At the tone, please record your message. First of all, in identifying trust, we have to have a common definition because you might say that it's resilience and safety, but I might say it's about being honest and transparent or being dependable. So it's really identifying what that common definition is for trust and basically trust in a working relationship, I believe, is that you have to be able to rely on your team, feel really safe, and they will act in your best interest at all times, and they won't betray you with minor infractions or even conscious ways of sabotaging. It involves confidence and being honest and dependable in their communication, and also not only in their communication, but also staying very aware of their vulnerability in the moment and speaking truth, because truth is sometimes very hard in the workplace. (02:02): It's very hard to tell your boss that I don't agree with you, and so I always welcome that on my team. I say, okay, here's my idea, because I'm not always going to get it right, but I trust my team will come back with the authentic answer for me. So it's foundational in effective collaboration as well. We have a highly collaborative team. I have a team of three directors and a controller, and we collaboratively decide the direction of the company at all times. I am the innovator and the forward thinker, and sometimes I miss all the details, so I trust my team to come in and say, Denise, let's pull you back. We really need to talk about some of the core steps it will take in order to realize what you're doing. And I trust them implicitly that they have the company and my best interest at heart at all times, and when trust is present, because I've worked in situations where trust is not present, it's really the vehicle to focus on innovation and problem solving and achieve shared goals in a very authentic and delightful progressive life. (03:13): I'll give a story of both. I get really excited. One of the things that I want to do is I want to give an incentive plan to my directors and staff, and I come up with the idea and then I bring it to my team and they very authentically say, hold on, let's look at some of the HR rules on incentive plans. Let's look at what's feasible. My controller ways in and says, well, that's a little expensive, and I'll say, but I want to do this because I want to honor my team. And they say, okay, well, here's how we best can do that. And they come back and they say, well, let's pull back. Or for instance, I wanted to go on a corporate retreat. I've been planning this for 10 years. I want to go on a corporate retreat and I want to take my people on a retreat to discuss some important things and to do some forecasting on what we're going to do next year. (04:03): Well, my HR lady says, wait a minute. We can't call it a retreat. We need to call it a strategic planning summit for the purposes of being clear, and so it doesn't look like we're all playing on the job even though we're going to be doing a lot of work. So my team helps me clarify and refine, but if I'm not a receptive leader and I go, no, no, no, it has to be retreat. I've just taken the wisdom and the knowledge and the perspective of my teammates, and I've just said, no, you don't count. I don't trust what you're talking about. So I need to take that in and say, your contribution is only designed whenever you talk to me. It's designed to refine and define and to tighten up anything that we might do. Conversely, a barrier that I see is if I say workplace life balance is important, and then I send out an email or I call them at 10 at night and I say, okay, I need you to respond to me immediately. (05:06): I've just breached. One of the important foundations of our community, our work community, is I want you to have your nights free. I want you to have nice work-life balance. And so my team has to trust that I say what I mean and mean what I say, and that's part of being trustworthy over time. I like to call it that radical candor coupled with consistent reliability, because we can't get things done. If I say, I need this by Tuesday, and someone says, I'll get it to you by Tuesday, and I walk away confident that they're going to have it, but then they don't show up for a week or two, then I have to say, you're developing behavior that leads me to believe that I can't rely on you when you say you're going to do something. And that is a foundation of trust. Conversely, if I say, can you get it by Tuesday? (05:58): And a staffer says, that's not a reasonable timeline, Dr. D, can I have an extra week that is a much more trustworthy and responsible answer because they're telling me what they can do and when they can meet the timeline, and then I trust that they need that extra week. I just want to summarize by saying trust plays a critical role in helping leaders achieve their goals by acting as a foundation, that foundational currency of effective collaboration. And I hope this is helpful. If you want more resources. There's two prominent psychologists that you can refer to. Bernard Bass is so exceptional in his work with transformational leadership, and Daniel Goldman popularized the concept of emotional intelligence. Both are needed for trust. I'm hopeful. Amanda, this answered your question on the role trust plays in leadership, and if you need anything else from me, please don't hesitate to call. I'm available. Amanda Smith (07:03): Thank you for listening. Want your podcast to do more, subscribe to Genius Cuts because it's never just a podcast.