Trust

I don't know where or when I heard the words "trust begets trust", but I became a believer.  I have found that it works, and I can't remember a time that my trust was not well founded.  I believe most people like to do what is right, and I trust them and get out of the their way.  This seems to work well, even with dogs.  Some discipline to make sure you are the pack leader is followed by several opportunities to "screw up" and with some followup correction makes them want to please me.  But how should I deal with mistakes, or outright misjudgments.  Getting angry only makes things worse, and the idea of learning and getting better requires making mistakes.

My first chance at managing a group was enlightening and fortified my belief in trust.  I would emphasize that the goal has to be a shared goal.   I had about 15 women working for me, and our task was to collect delinquent bills.  I soon learned that I really didn't know how best to handle the problem, but the ladies who worked for me did.  Lesson number one, trust that they know what to do, and get out of their way.  At first, they didn't know if they could trust me, and it took some time and basically asking them how they felt the job could be done effectively.  After a while I felt like a cheer leader rather than a manager!  Later in my career I managed a repair facility, and I took over from a fellow who was literally hated.  I came in with the same trusting attitude, and asked how can we get the job done effectively?  It took awhile, but we learned the common goal was get the right stuff repaired, in the right order, and with minimal cost.  I gave them the responsibility of recommending what needed to be done, and how could we best get it done?  I will never forget the day that a lady by the name of Stella came into my office and said, why don't we convert some unusable equipment to a product we needed badly.  She proceeded to show me what had to be done to make the conversion.  It was simple!  I had her trust and she trusted me.

It takes time to get people to believe that they can fail without stifling repercussions.  The best solutions have seldom come from me,  but from those who I trust to find the best solution.  -- Enough