[Alicia Davis] All right, Stacie, so I am curious, for those who are listening, how important do you think trust is to building a team? What do you think, Stacie?

[Stacie Watson] Well, I mean, there’s a lot of research out there about that question, and I think the simple answer is it’s really, really important.

[Alicia Davis] Really important. Big, important.

[Stacie Watson] Really big important. And I have a really fun, simple little exercise that we can do, that can kind of demonstrate, at least from one perspective, why it’s so important. So you game for us do it?

[Alicia Davis] Let’s do it!

[Stacie Watson] Okay, great. So it’s a little thought exercise, so if you’re watching the video, I invite you to follow along. So the first question – think about the worst boss that you ever had, hopefully not the person you have right now. Worst boss.

[Alicia Davis] Okay.

[Stacie Watson] And share one or two positive qualities that person had. So, worst boss, but positive qualities.

[Alicia Davis] Alright. Um, okay, positive quality was she got things done, like she made things happen. Um, that’s about all I can come up with.

[Stacie Watson] That’s enough. Just one. All right. So then we’re going to do the opposite again if you’re following along. The question is, who is the best boss you ever had? Hopefully, maybe the person you’re reporting to right now. Best boss and maybe one quality that sort of drives you crazy or drove you crazy.

[Alicia Davis] Yeah, so my best boss was so compassionate, so kind, and sometimes what drove me a little bit crazy was she didn’t make decisions really quickly because she really wanted to try to get consensus, get lots of feedback and input, and make sure everybody was pretty happy with the outcome of that decision. So sometimes that was a challenge.

[Stacie Watson] Yeah, perfect. So here’s sort of the “so what” of the exercise?

[Alicia Davis] Okay.

[Stacie Watson]For the worst boss, did you trust that person – even with their positive quality?

[Alicia Davis] No, no, no…

[Stacie Watson] And with your best boss, even with the thing or things that drove you crazy, did you trust that person?

[Alicia Davis] Absolutely, without a doubt!

[Stacie Watson] Yeah. So why is that thought exercise so reflective of the importance of trust?

[Alicia Davis] Yeah, it’s so important, right? Because trust is, it feels intangible, and yet we know it like deep in our gut, whether we trust someone or not.

[Stacie Watson] Yes. Yes.

[Alicia Davis] So it really comes down to what Stacie?

[Stacie Watson] Well, it’s just this idea that when we have trust on our team, we have room to not be perfect. We have room to weather challenges. We have room to make mistakes. We have room to allow people to try things and maybe it works wonderfully and maybe not. When there’s no trust, there’s no space. There’s no room for, even when people are doing things that are relatively positive, we might be somehow finding the negative, right?

[Alicia Davis] That’s right.

[Stacie Watson] I think we underestimate how trust matters, even when it comes to being productive and effective as a team. And that’s part of what we talk about in our upcoming session, right?

[Alicia Davis] That’s right, the Power of Strengthening Team Trust, where we really dig deep into some of these qualities, characteristics, and approaches. How do we build that, and what gets in the way of building that? So it’s coming up on November 12th. It’s in our Learning Academy. So you can always check it out at academy.tlstransforms.com. And I’m Alicia Davis…

[Stacie Watson] I’m Stacie Watson…

[Alicia Davis] And thanks so much for listening, and we’ll talk to you soon.

[Stacie Watson] Take care.