Trust and Hope

A hopeful, confident, competent workforce that trusts its leaders has to be what every smart CEO in the United States covets.

The key words here are hope and trust. 

Hope and trust will produce a level of confidence that is an amazing and powerful force in the workplace.  A service industry CEO recently told me that he would rather have B and C quality employees who are emotionally engaged with hope and confidence, over   A+ employees, sometimes from the top schools in the country, who lack those characteristics. 

Confidence is important but hope is a power that, if nurtured, is a fuel that can make an organization move to the next level of performance, passing the competitors in the process. Trust is the tie that binds

For all of its power, the ability to instill a sense of hope in employees is also the most vulnerable of the leadership components.  

Leaders who fail to understand the sanctity and importance of employee hope and trust are destined for major career disappointment. For leaders who fail their employees by   breaking their trust and dashing their hopes, pack your bags. It is only a matter of time.

Many successful CEOs of today have overcome the hurdles that prevented them from becoming trust and hope leaders by: 

1. Believing that leading with hope, and fostering trust, is the best way to guide an organization.
2. Being willing to empower employees because successful empowerment depends on a commitment to investing in employees and allowing them to grow professionally.
3. Becoming inspirational, a beacon for the employees in the good times as well as the bad. 

Good leaders are those who know how to tap into the amazing power of their employees and to focus their energy on the organization’s goals to be the best. 

This is not an esoteric exercise.  This leadership style takes enormous vigor, passion, and a respect for the idea that there is almost always a better way.

Don’t forget about the trust and the hope.