{"id":2092,"date":"2013-02-03T23:50:32","date_gmt":"2013-02-04T07:50:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/markccrowley.com\/?p=2092"},"modified":"2013-02-03T23:50:32","modified_gmt":"2013-02-04T07:50:32","slug":"the-unintended-consequences-of-a-leaders-lack-of-trust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-wmplo.xyz\/mark-c-divi5\/the-unintended-consequences-of-a-leaders-lack-of-trust\/","title":{"rendered":"The Unintended Consequences Of A Leader\u2019s Lack Of Trust"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"trust\"<\/p>\n

“So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.”
\n<\/i>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Peter Drucker<\/p>\n

As many of you know, I recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Jim Goodnight, CEO of the analytics software giant, SAS Institute.<\/p>\n

I spent a day at the company\u2019s North Carolina headquarters, and then returned home to write an article that described many of the key reasons the firm recently was named the \u201cBest Company To Work For\u201d \u2013 in the world.<\/p>\n

But here I am, less than two weeks later, wanting to tell you more about SAS \u2013 and a masterful leadership insight I picked up from Goodnight that many of the greatest minds in business routinely overlook:<\/p>\n

If your objective is to build extreme employee engagement, and to inspire your people to contribute to your firm as if they owned it, you must first create \u2013 and then vigilantly sustain \u2013 a culture of trust.<\/p>\n

Said another way, the reason SAS experiences less than three percent annual turnover, and has had 37 consecutive years of record earnings, is because its management fully understands that by giving people its trust, they earn a profound payback. When employees know they are trusted, they take initiative; they put their hearts into their work. They more willingly take the risks that lead to breakthrough innovation.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the rub. Plenty of otherwise intelligent leaders in business come from an entirely different perspective and believe that employee productivity is better driven by strict rules and internal competition. As you\u2019ll soon see in the following three real-world examples, in the absence of trust, neither employees nor organizations can ever fully flourish:<\/p>\n

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  1. \n

    When James Corcoran was hired as the President of Retail Banking at Washington Mutual Bank (now owned by Chase), he quickly determined that the firm needed greater discipline in how it evaluated business decisions.<\/p>\n

    Corcoran soon introduced a tool he called a \u201cfour square,\u201d and informed his staff that any time they sought his approval on a proposal going forward, they were required to present their business case on a single sheet of paper \u2013 delineated into four equally sized boxes.<\/p>\n

    Corcoran was very clear. Each box on the \u201cfour square\u201d had a specific purpose and he expected his rules to be followed. A summary of the proposal always went into the top left corner box, and the financial analysis always in the bottom right. Everything had its place.<\/p>\n

    But where things went awry was when Corcoran was displeased with the content provided in a \u201cfour square.\u201d He very often sent managers away, without rendering a decision, until they returned with a more satisfactory presentation. He did this even when he had sufficient data to make his call.<\/p>\n

    To be clear, Corcoran cannot be faulted for instituting a more formal and consistent decision making methodology at WaMu. This decision proved to serve him and the organization well. But by insisting on absolute perfection in every form he reviewed, people began spending disproportionate time producing faultless \u201cfour squares.\u201d And in order to avoid hearing Corcoran harshly voice his rejection, some employees grew to fear bringing him new ideas and proposals altogether.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    As recently reported in Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine, Dish Network founder and Chairman, Charlie Ergan, may be the single worst executive in America when it comes to establishing and nurturing organizational trust. According to writer, Caleb Hannan, the list of trust-destroying practices Ergan employs is virtually endless. Here are just a few.<\/p>\n