Published monthly by Sharon Eakes, Hope Unlimited, LLC
******************************************************* FOCUS: Trust
Disciplines: Personal mastery, Mental Models, Systems thinking

"Calmness is trust in action."
Twenty-four Hours a Day Book

THOUGHTS

When it comes to building trust, actions speak louder than words. Newly sober alcoholics are often upset when their families do not trust their promise they've stopped drinking. Families trust their experience. The same is true of employees. They wait to see if actions match espoused values, visions, slogans, then they trust their experience.

In the March, 2003 Systems Thinker (www.thesystemsthinker) Doug Stilwell talks about trust as "an underlying condition necessary to support all effective human interaction....a foundational systemic structure." He describes trust as "a system composed of many independent yet interrelated and interconnected factors, including integrity, honesty, character, reliability and competence."

Trust is vitally important in families, in organizations, in communities. Distrust, like fear, drains energy. When there is mutual trust, a synergy of the interrelated factors, people grow and are productive. When the environment is trusting, there is energy for getting things done, for innovation and for fun.

COACHING TIPS To grow trust in your life:

--> Be trustworthy yourself. The best way to do this is to do what you say you'll do...consistently.
--> Don't participate in gossip or backbiting, period. It is hard to trust someone who gossips or backbites.
--> Find something to trust in every person and situation. Separate trust from liking. You don't have to like a person or a situation to trust. For example, trust a person's competence or sincerity, even if there are things you don't like about her.

INVITATION
Please join me for a 45-minute telegathering to talk in more depth about trust, why it's important, how to grow it. Call Thursday, May 29 at 12 noon EST (11:00 a.m. CST, 10:00 a.m. MT, 9:00 a.m. PST)
(1-858-300-3030, Access code: 720720). No need to register....just call at that time!

Reach me: 1-888-769-3494 or e-mail sharon@hopellc.com I am a personal and professional coach and would be happy to offer you a complimentary phone session.

Each month FRESH VIEWS focuses on a single topic, relates it to one of the five disciplines of a learning community, and offers a coaching tip and a follow-up telegathering. Please forward it to friends and colleagues. My purpose in writing FRESH VIEWS is to nurture, prod and encourage readers to think and talk about these topics with their families, friends and colleagues. Mine is only one view. Multiple conversations may deliver us to insights only hinted at here. Such a process sustains the vitality of learning relationships, learning families, learning organizations and learning communities.