Lessons in Leadership by Adubato Steve

Author:Adubato, Steve
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780813580562
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Published: 2016-07-08T04:00:00+00:00

12

It’s a Matter of Trust

I recently had the honor of emceeing the CohnReznick Foundation’s 24th Annual Charity Golf Invitational, which raised more than $150,000 for two extraordinary organizations—the Special Operations Warrior Foundation (SOWF) and the Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation. At this event, I was fortunate enough to speak with Joe Torre, the former Yankees manager and Hall of Famer, for a public television interview, in which he spoke openly about his early life, his family, his career as the manager of the Yankees, how he ultimately came to found the Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation, and the importance of making a difference in the lives of others. During our interview, I had the opportunity to ask Torre about the greatest leadership lesson he has learned in baseball and in life. He responded, “Trust. I managed for almost thirty years and over this time I realized that you can employ all the strategy that you want. Yet, when it comes to the players that you’re asking to commit to what you’re trying to do and what you’re trying to teach, the thing is that they have blood running through their veins. You need to have an understanding of each and every one of them. You can’t treat them all the same. My one goal is you have to treat them all fairly. You have to establish trust.”

Joe Torre’s best-selling book on leadership, Ground Rules for Winners, has influenced me greatly, and his words offer a powerful lesson to all of us. Without trust you can’t lead. It’s that simple—if your people don’t trust you, they won’t follow you. They won’t believe you, and they likely won’t give you the benefit of the doubt. It’s hard enough to lead successfully when times are good, but when times get challenging, difficult, uncertain, or even scary, a leader has absolutely no chance of succeeding and getting others to stay on board and remain loyal if he or she has not established trust. I’ve seen it countless times in organizations in which the leadership team hasn’t been upfront in sharing important information with team members about things that are happening within the organization. As a result, these leaders have failed to build trust with employees over an extended period of time. So ask yourself what happens when times get tough? Revenues are down, some big clients are lost, there’s a change at the top—one of the many “peaks and valleys” of running an organization. You know what happens, some of the best people on the team head for the exit. They leave. They quit. And when pressed as to why, a significant part of the reason often comes down to a lack of trust in the leader of the organization.

Yet, trust is a very complex thing. It’s so hard to achieve but so easy to lose, and once you lose it, it seems so hard to get back. Leadership and trust is kind of like a marriage, when you think about it.

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