Let’s take a look at Joni, an MD with a fierce determination to succeed.

She is fast-moving and visionary and she certainly knows how to interrupt. But despite her charisma, when we first met Joni she wasn’t getting people to buy into her vision; and when we investigated further we heard story after story from people down the line that they didn’t trust her or her top team

Telling Joni this news didn’t go down well. She was impatient with the ‘nay-sayers’, they just didn’t like the change that she was driving. But in all the surveys the same message was coming through. Trust in leadership was poor.

Consistency is key for leaders…

When we dug a little deeper we saw why. The problem was that while Joni was inspirational she was also inconsistent. This showed up in the way she let bad behaviour among her colleagues go unchallenged; and she also had her favourites, which left some people feeling she wasn’t even-handed. So although her message about values and good behaviour was clear, what employees saw was that what really mattered to Joni was results – at any cost. And this left people feeling disheartened and disengaged.

Trust is critical for us all…

What did Joni need to address? It was clear that trust was the big issue and we created this approach to forging trust for exactly such situations. It addresses not only the essential building blocks of trust but also highlights the key questions that allow us to access a much deeper relationship with others.

Conversations to forge trust…

1 - Transparency - ‘what do I want you to know about me?’

2 - Vulnerability - ‘where is my strength a weakness and my weakness a strength?’

3 - Commitment - ‘what can you count on me for?’

4 - Opportunity - ‘what can you count on me for?’

In all these four conversations we ignite trust.