Satisfaction, networking, community, achievement, balance, decision making, health, and influence. Can you imagine what kind of leader you would be if you scored high in all of these domains? Can you imagine a workplace fueled with employees who excel in each of these categories?
According to Yvette Bethel, a co-creator of the Trust Style Inventory by Organizational Soul and Six Seconds, the key to scoring high in each of these areas boils down to one single, learnable factor: TRUST. With the amount of research emphasizes the importance of trust in the workplace, it’s no surprise that it contributes so greatly to the domains that make our work (and life) experience successful and fulfilling.
While the Trust Style Inventory (TSI), gives users insights into their satisfaction with areas of their lives affected by trust, it also provides insights into how each person can go about using their trust-building strengths to enhance their personal and professional lives. By providing a Trust Style Profile that highlights the tendencies of each user, the Trust Style Inventory is a comprehensive guide to why trust is important, how you trust, and how to build it.
The Trust Style Inventory explains to leaders and employees alike how they can boost the three learnable components of trust: We Disposition, Emotional Mastery, and Integrity. Let’s take a look at experiences of different people in the workplace to see how these three components of the Pillar of Trust play out in real life.
The Pillar of Trust in Action:
We Disposition: Willingness to care about and collaborate with others
HIGH in We Disposition: Laura
Laura is a mid-level manager, so she reports to her bosses and supports a team of her own. Her bosses describe her as a “team player”—she enjoys hearing her coworkers’ ideas and opinions, and tries to validate them as much as possible. She has a sense that she is taken care of by both her bosses and employees, and she likes to take care of them in return. When Laura sets a goal for her team, she works hard to gain ‘buy-in’; she does this by explaining the ‘why’ behind the goals she sets. Often, she works with her team to define a shared goal on which everyone can agree. Laura tends to think of her team as a unit; while she recognizes and respects the hierarchical structure, she likes to think of everyone ‘above’ and ‘below’ her position within the hierarchy as working toward a common goal: the organization’s success. Laura thinks in a way that is high on the We Disposition scale.
LOW in We Disposition: Taya
Taya is a mid-level manager with similar responsibilities to Laura. However, she doesn’t feel she is well taken care of by her team or bosses. Because of this, she believes she needs to look out for herself. She chases promotions and bonuses without considering who her ambitious actions affect. Taya noticed that a few people on her team asked for transfers, but she hasn’t asked why. She fears that knowing the answer might reflect negatively on her, so she works even harder to get good numbers (even if it means occasionally calling someone else’s work her own). She isn’t opposed to communicating a shared goal, but she’s not sure what it would be. Taya feels too vulnerable to ask her team members about their goals. In meetings with her senior management, she often gets frustrated with their emphasis on finding common ground—why should everyone need to work toward shared goals? Ultimately, Taya thinks more often in ‘I’ statements than ‘We’ Statements.
We Disposition: Which story sounds more like yours? Do you think more in ‘I’ or ‘We’ statements, or somewhere in-between? What can you learn from Laura and Taya?
Emotional Mastery: Emotional intelligence, or ability to be smart with feelings
HIGH Emotional Mastery: Tim
Tim is an intern, so he is relatively new to his organization. While being in unfamiliar territory is disconcerting for Tim, he is almost always aware of his fears before they affect his actions. When asked about it, he can usually say where he is on the scale of fear intensity. He understands the purpose of fear; he knows it surfaces because he really cares about his performance. His self-identified goal is to become a full-time employee, so he knows he needs to show how valuable he is. Because performance is so important to Tim, he identifies behaviors that can help him to become better at his job. One behavior he diligently works on is listening to his co-workers with empathy, a powerful emotional intelligence skill. Because of his work ethic, clear goals, and effective networking skills, he became a full-time employee at the end of his internship. He is aware that is emotional mastery contributed to his appointment.
LOW Emotional Mastery: Logan
Logan is an intern at the same organization as Tim. Logan, also experiences fear, but he doesn’t know how to identify or navigate it. Instead of harnessing this emotion to push forward with his goals, he acts from a place of unconscious fear. Logan’s actions are easily swayed by his emotions so he hides mistakes instead of asking for clarification, and his reports are late because he is afraid he completed them incorrectly. Some time ago, when one of his supervisors asked him why a report was late, his fear caused him to react defensively. Logan then left the room, unaware that his unbridled reaction was viewed as inappropriate and therefore damaged his reputation. Logan sweeps his fear (and other emotions) under the carpet, where they can secretly run the show. Logan wasn’t invited to become a full-time employee at the end of his internship. This rejection fed his un-confronted fear. His response was, “See! Why should I put myself out there? I knew I was going to fail.”
Emotional Mastery: Do either of these stories sound particularly familiar to you? Have you considered how emotionally intelligent you are? When you are confronted with an emotion, that challenges you, do you react or do you take a considered approach?
Integrity: adherence to values like honesty and transparency
HIGH Integrity: Sasha
Sasha is a long-tenured CEO. Over her many years in business, she learned to only make promises she can keep. Because of this, she often says ‘no’, even if it is an unpopular decision. Sasha is respected in her organization because, if she says ‘yes,’ she can be counted on to pull through. She also values keeping confidences; her team members know that if they share a personal or professional issue with her, Sasha can be trusted to maintain their privacy. One time, another member of her leadership team was angry with her for not disclosing a professional issue related to another employee. While she understood her colleague’s anger, Sasha remained unwavering on her personal value of confidentiality. She is disciplined about maintaining her core values; her moral compass points toward her true North.
LOW Integrity: Lee
Lee is a newer CEO. While he excels in other competencies that make up the Pillar of Trust, he has difficulty with Integrity. He is so eager to please others that he finds himself making promises he can’t keep. As a result, he has to rescind his offers to help, or he makes unsatisfactory contributions because he put too many obligations on his plate. Because of this pattern, Lee’s colleagues don’t trust him. Even when he follows through on his commitments, he often seems overstretched and half-hearted. Some of Lee’s colleagues exploit his weakness for saying ‘yes,’ asking him for favors. Also, stemming from his eagerness to please, he sometimes lets confidential details slip that were meant to be private. While Lee is kind-hearted and giving, he is not clear on his core values, so he lets the expectations of others dictate his actions. His moral compass changes direction depending on who is imposing their demands on him.
Integrity: Do either of these stories sound particularly familiar to you? Are you clear about your values, or are you easily influenced by other people’s wishes? Can you be trusted to keep certain details private?
The three components of the Pillar of Trust: Your We Disposition, Emotional Mastery, and Integrity, are completely learnable. This means any of the individuals in the stories above have the opportunity to build both their strengths and their weaknesses. Together, these components form a solid core in which individuals and organizations can thrive. You can use the Trust Style Inventory to identify which aspects of your Pillar of Trust are weakest and strongest and then to develop trust-building strategies that can enhance your success.
Can you imagine if Taya could learn to think from a ‘We’ perspective, Logan learned how to better navigate his fear, or Leah learned to identify and follow her own values? The Trust Style Inventory helps users move from theory to action by including a full page of workbook-style questions. These questions are designed to encourage users to identify relationships they want to improve and the steps they want to take now while integrating the personalized concepts given in the report.
With a firm foundation of trust, your personal and professional achievements are possible. What will you do to build trust in yourself, your team, and your organization?
If you would like to learn more about your Trust Style and how you can use it for career growth, leadership development or cultural transformation, contact us at www.orgsoul.com.
To get certified to use or offer the Trust Style Inventory you can register for the Trust Style Inventory Certification at the IFB Academy: https://organizationalsoul.learnworlds.com/course/trust-style-inventory-tsi-certification. With knowledge gained from over 30 years of Fortune 500 and consulting experience,
Yvette uses her rich experience and proprietary models for transforming businesses from the inside out. As a Six Seconds Preferred Partner, she is part of the largest emotional intelligence network in the world, collaborating to create, cutting edge trust tools.
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