Do You Trust Yourself?

Stephen M.R. Covey's book, The Speed of Trust, is a must read for leaders. Let's face it, trust is at the heart of all solid relationships and the workplace is a series of relationships. The books breaks trust down to its essence.

We often think of of trust stemming from one's character only, but Covey reminds us that competence is a key issue in trust as well. I may have outstanding character, but if someone does not trust that I have the knowledge, skills or abilities to perform, my character alone will not ensure total trust.

Covey also writes about the 5 Waves of Trust metaphorically derived from the "ripple effect" that suggests trust flows from the inside out. The first wave is Self-trust. In essence, we have to believe in our own character and ability to perform before others will trust us. Psychologist, Albert Bandura, labeled the conviction about ones own ability to amass the motivation, resources and courses of action to complete a task as self-efficacy. Positive psychology researchers find this to be one of the greatest determinants of success. We now know that self-efficacy correlates highly with job performance, job attitudes and motivation. Henry Ford was right when he said:"Whether you think you can or you can't, you're right."

Transformational Leaders have healthy self-efficacy. They consistently live their values and they have a well developed sense of their own strengths. These characteristics put Transformational Leaders on the right track to trust and be trusted.

For leaders whose honest evaluation leaves them unsure of their own self-efficacy, it can be developed! Leadership Beyond Limits offers leadership development programming centered on Bandura's steps to building self-efficacy.

We will be reviewing Covey's Trust Waves 2 through 5 in later blogs.

How to Gain Ground in the Economic Downturn

Our employee engagement partner, Quantum Workplace, recently came out with some very useful research about how the top "Best Places to Work" companies are bucking the negative trends of the current economic recession. You can watch a free 30 minute webcast of the research findings here.

They identified the top five areas where the best of the best are out-performing the rest. Each of the five areas is supported by five to seven best practices, many of them low or no cost action steps that business leaders can implement to keep a positive culture alive, even in these challenging times.

We also feature a .pdf summary of the webcast in our online resource library which can be accessed here: http://leadershipbeyondlimits.com/resources.htm There is no cost for registration and you can access many other employee engagement resources in addition to this research summary which is entitled beating_bear_market.pdf

We encourage you to take advantage of these great new resources.

Create Greatness: Inspire Others

I have come across two very inspiring short videos on the web recently that are worth sharing. The first is a Franklin Covey offering. At under 3 minutes, it is a quick homage to the leaders who inspired us to greatness. http://web-dev.franklincovey.co.uk/cc_creatinggreatness.htm

The other wonderful video is an award winning short feature titled Validation. At 17 minutes, it is much longer than most of what you find on the web and well worth a viewing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbk980jV7Ao

Adding one more great video I just came across. It speaks to the "lost generation". Worth a view- only 3 minutes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA

Shifting Collective Consciousness

Transforming organizational culture begins with transformational leadership, which was briefly defined in our last blog post. What we are talking about here is a shift in individual consciousness from a primary concern about the self to a broader concern for the common good. As leaders in an organization shift their consciousness, the culture of the organization shifts with them. We know the effects of individual transformation can be dramatic within a relatively small eco-system like organizational culture. But do individual shifts in consciousness affect the larger community, or even the global community?

The Institute of Noetic Sciences is a pioneer in leading-edge research into the potentials and powers of consciousness - including perceptions, beliefs, attention, intention, and intuition. The Institute explores phenomena that do not necessarily fit conventional scientific models, while maintaining a commitment to scientific rigor. These folks are definitely on the leading edge, and their research findings challenge many of our traditional beliefs. They recently released a short animated video, starring Dr. Dean Radin, a world-renowned researcher of psychic (or "psi") phenomena, as Jedi Master Oh Be One Kenobi, as he takes viewers on an amusing foray into quantum entanglement and planetary fields of collective consciousness. Click here to learn more about research findings into how our collective consciousness shifts with world events.

They are also running a special Trial Month of the Shift in Action program for a $1 donation to the Institute of Noetic Sciences. May the Force be with you in 2009!