70 | Is trust important in Leadership: Justin Deese

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Show Information

Episode Number: 70

Date: January 20, 2025

Duration: 27:17

Host Contact Information

Host: Justin Deese

Website: JustinDeese.com 

Contact: Justin@JustinDeese.com

Free Gift: copy of my eBook you can text 850-750-5505 or you can get a copy from www.FreedomBluePrintPodcast.com/ebook

Summary

In this episode of the Freedom Blueprint podcast, Justin Deese explores the critical role of trust in leadership. He discusses the current state of trust in society, the consequences of a lack of trust within teams, and practical strategies for building trust, including setting clear expectations, accountability, and conducting one-on-one meetings. The conversation emphasizes that effective leadership hinges on understanding and connecting with team members, ultimately leading to a more productive and engaged workforce.

Takeaways

• Trust is foundational in leadership and relationships.
• Current societal trust levels are alarmingly low.
• Lack of trust leads to high turnover and disengagement.
• Clear expectations are essential for team trust.
• Accountability should be balanced with recognition of achievements.
• Consistency in messaging builds trust over time.
• Empathy and open communication are vital for leaders.
• Training and empowering team members fosters trust.
• Integrity and authenticity are crucial for effective leadership.
• One-on-ones can significantly enhance team dynamics and trust.

Chapters

00:00 The Importance of Trust in Leadership

02:11 Current State of Trust in Society

05:57 Consequences of Lack of Trust

09:37 Building Trust with Your Team

15:13 The Role of One-on-Ones in Leadership

27:04 Final Thoughts on Leadership and Trust

Keywords

leadership, trust, team dynamics, communication, accountability, empathy, one-on-ones, management, productivity, growth

Transcript

Justin Deese (00:23)

Welcome to another episode of Freedom Blueprint podcast. Happy Monday. If you're listening to this episode, the day it drops, if not happy, whatever day you're listening, I hope you're having an amazing day and listen today's episode. We're going to get into a pretty big question here, which is, is trust important in leadership? Right? Is, is it actually important?

And really today we're going to dive into a little bit more of that topic on the heart of trust in leadership. So, but hang on tight because before we jump into that, I want to give you a free gift. So I have a new ebook that is just come out. It's called from pipe dreams to pay day. And if you want to pick up a free copy, you can just text the word ebook to 8 5 0 7 5 0 5 5 0 5

Again, that number is 850-750-5505 and text the word ebook and you'll get a free copy of that book. I gotta tell you, it's a pretty good ebook. I mean, I'm certainly I'm biased, but it was a fun project. As most of you know, my wife and I wrote a book. Gosh, it's almost been five years ago now that we released the book called When Your Business Partner Is Your Spouse. I will tell you writing an ebook is a much shorter journey than

than the other book, but there's a ton of value in it. It's not a super long read. I think there's a lot of really good content. I was trying to keep it really short and concise. So check it out again. Text the word ebook to 850-750-5505. So let's jump in today's topic. And today's topic is, is trust important in leadership?

And I think if we, you know, it kind of first, if you hear that, you just automatically go away. Yeah, of course it is. But, but is it really right? I mean, we hear a lot of things about trust being, you know, the foundation of really any kind of relationship whatsoever. But, but I wanted to dive in a little bit of, on the side of leadership, cause from a relationship, obviously trust is, I mean, that could be the foundation of, of, I can't think of a relationship that that's not, but again,

leadership is a little bit of a different animal. So I want to dive into that just a little bit today.

Is trust a major, is trust a major part of your leadership? How crucial is it really? Let's find out.

Truth is right now we live in a time where trust is probably at an all time low. I haven't done the research to know what percentage of whatever, but, but I think you'll probably agree with me right now. Trust is not at an all time high. It's probably more on the all time low. and the world that we live in right now. And really that's because, you know, people and organizations that we feel like that we feel like we're supposed to be able to trust.

we don't anymore. And obviously the, the big one in the room is the mainstream media. That's a big one. financial institutions now there's, there's a lot of, shenanigans we'll say, that are, that are happening there. Government politicians, like there's, there's so many different, different things that were built that were kind of born with thinking that we're supposed to trust or.

you know, growing up thinking that we're supposed to trust that if that have really started to kind of crumble over the last however many years, I don't even know how long it's been, but it's been a while. And it, and I'm sure as you heard just those couple little examples, I'm sure you have a few that you're thinking of on your list that you would give as an example of either people or organizations or foundations or whatever that you kind of have that a little bit of

trust concerns or issues with. You know, really the ones that I that I talked about before scratch.

So out of the list that I gave before, here's an interesting fact. And this is for the, for the older generation in the room. but Walter Cronkite was, was one of the first news anchored. Maybe he wasn't one of the first news anchors, but he was a big news anchors from the sixties to the eighties. And he was referred to as the most trusted man in America. Now think about that. Now, when you think about news anchors now does most trusted in America.

even fall inside anything you would think of when it when it comes to that. I don't know.

So let's dive into a little bit of, trust and not trust. And we're going to start with, with not trust. So really, and again, I think this is a little bit of an obvious point, but I'm going to bring it up and we'll get into some, specifics on how to increase, the trust that you have going on with your team. But let's go to without trust, because I think a lot of times when people hear, when they hear this topic, they, they go, yeah, of course, that's obvious. There should be trust.

And then, and then realistically does their team trust them? And I think sometimes we don't ask the question. And I think sometimes we don't ask the question because maybe we don't want to know the truth. And really here's the deal. If we don't have trust, like if people don't have trust in their leadership, then I mean, productivity is certainly not at an all time high. Growth is not on fire and growing. And really some things that come from that are

high turnover, gosh, high turnover. We're in an industry right now where a lot of people talk about not having enough people to do the job. Right? So it's always, it's, can't find any good people and nobody wants to work and all of those things. so if you don't have trust in your people and you have high turnover, that's just going to amplify that issue. Cause you know, if you, if you have good people and they just, there's a trust breakdown there.

then they're gonna go find somewhere else to work. That's just kinda how that works. So high turnover, even the ones that stay, you never get buy-in from them. You're not gonna have buy-in if they don't trust you. Goals won't be important. Goals won't be important because realistically, there's a good chance that they're just kinda there to get a paycheck. Like they're just there getting a paycheck. And really when that kinda thing happens, there's no...

you're not getting a hundred percent of output. Like you're getting just enough for somebody to get by, which is not a win for anybody. It's, it's not a win for you as the leader. It's not a win for the team member cause they're not progressing or growing or advancing or anything like that. And the other thing is, as a leader, if you don't have a lot of trust, I'm guessing you don't share vision. but if you do share vision and they don't trust you or don't trust your vision, you're just not ever going to get any buy-in. That's just.

they're not going to buy in because they're not going to want to be a part of something that they don't trust. I will say I've, I've heard a lot of technicians, say that, that about places that they've worked, they're like, I worked in this place and they really wanted me to sell, sell, sell. And, know, I just had to be to lay my head down at night and go to sleep. And, no, I didn't take advantage of somebody. Now part of that's true, but part of that also is sometimes that's a reason that people give to.

maybe not offer options. I'm gonna scratch that, cause that really is getting off into a rabbit hole.

Hmm

So one of the things that you can kind of do a little bit of a self evaluation on where you are on the trust factor. Obviously you can ask your team. I think if you just came out and asked them, you're, you're, probably going to give you whatever answer you want. There are actual ways to, do some, some asking, without them feeling like there's a recourse, but here's some things, that you can kind of ask yourself to see if trust is a foundation in your business and your leadership.

So if you're asking yourself, how do I already, how do I, how do I know if I do or don't have trust in your team?

Here's some ways to build trust in your team. First thing is, and this is gonna be a hard one to believe just because I think a lot of times people think that team, they don't want clear expectations, but they do. You've got to give your team members clear expectations, right? Very clear expectation. What is expected of them? What is their job? Nothing should ever be subjective. And I think that's one of the hardest things about running a service.

Probably any business, but I've only run service business. So I'll speak to service businesses, which is having clear expectations that aren't, are, that are not subjective, clear. Did you hit it? Yes or no. so I think the more clarity you get on that, the better that gets for the team because now they're not guessing. And one of the worst things that a team member can do is guess if they're doing a good job or not. The other thing is accountability. accountability means, you know, there's a couple of things, but

One of the things on accountability is if, if you give them clear expectations and they're not hitting those expectations, you have to let them know, Hey, I see you and I know that we're not hitting these and you need to have that conversation on the flip side of that. When there's clear expectations, if they are hitting it, you have got to make sure that you're leaning in to celebrate the win and not just using.

you can't just be accountable when things go bad. Like there's gotta be a high five. There's gotta be both sides of it. the other thing with accountability is, is really leading by example. Right. always think about this as a parent and I want to say this a lot and I sometimes I do, but do as I do and not as I say, right? Like that's just such an easy way to just be like, do what I do, what I say, not as I do. And you'll be fine. So, clear expectations, accountability, two big parts.

of having trust with your Saint with your team. The other thing is consistency, right? So if you're going to have clear expectations and there's going to be accountability, you have to be consistent about your message. You have to be consistent. Like you can't just blow up when something goes bad, which you shouldn't blow up when something goes bad anyways, but you should just be consistent with your messaging, right? So when someone does a good job, make sure you celebrate the win. And when there's not a,

When they don't win, make sure that there's a little bit of a celebration on that. the, the saying correct and private praise and public comes to mind. and if you've never heard that term, I would, I would say that's something good to write down and remember, but praise and public correct and private is, is really, really good. And obviously, you know, when someone wins, let's celebrate it out in public. Let's, know, town square meeting. my gosh. Show and so did such a great job.

But then when there is some corrective action that needs to take, it doesn't need to happen in front of anybody else. It needs to happen behind closed doors in private so that there is an open, honest conversation about what's going on.

One of the other things is empathy and understanding and really encouraging and open communication and listening and being able to listen to what's going on and being able to handle that, that conversation. You know, a lot of times if you sit down with a technician and this is not something you normally do when you sit down with a, let's say a technician who's not, who's close rates, not where you want it to be. If you don't have very specific guidelines and clear expectations, I promise you what you're going to hear back.

is going to be something to the effect of I don't get good calls or they all go to Jimmy or what, whatever kind of thing it is. So you, even if you don't buy into what's going on, you still have to be empathetic understanding and you still have to listen to that concern, which I know for a lot of us, we feel like we're too busy for that crap. Like just figure it out, go, go close a job, go sell a job. And the truth is, we have to make time and as a leader, that's our job.

Like literally leadership is about clearing out the garbage out of the pathway of your team members so they can go be successful. I mean, that's literally the core, probably the single for me. Like when I think of leadership, that's the thing I think about. Your job is to clear the path so that they have a clear path to success. And, you know, these are some of the things that, that will get you there. Now, another thing is training. We have to train our team. They're not going to get better by just.

going and messing it up over and over again. So we have to train, we have to invest the time, the effort, the energy, the money, like we just have to do it. You have to train how to learn every skill and it doesn't matter. I there's all kinds of new skills coming out, new tools, new whatever, we have to make a priority to training and then you have to empower them to go out and do what it is that you're training on. And again,

This all goes back to clear expectations, accountability, consistency, empathy, right? You see how this is, this is all flowing here. another thing I've got on here is act with integrity, transparent, and authenticity. Those are three really, really big terms that I've kind of lumped into one thing and I've done it really on purpose because I don't, I don't want to go in like we can have a whole, series of podcasts about, about those things. But at the end of the day,

As a leader, sometimes it's, easy to forget that we're human and it's easy to forget that we don't have to have all the answers. We're not perfect. You're our team does not expect us to be perfect. So what I'm going to with the, the point I'm getting to with this is if you mess something up, own it, don't just own it, own it to your team. Right? If you, if you completely limit, let's say you run a call with, with one of your tag, you're doing a

You're doing a ride along or you yourself are still every now and again in a truck and selling you go to a house and we've all been there in front of a customer where we're like, this is just not going well. What is happening? Why? How do I get this train back on the track? And maybe you don't get it back on track or maybe you do, but those are really good stories to share with your team in order to get, to get them to really have that trust and authenticity in you as a leader is to not try to be perfect. We're not perfect.

There's no perfect people like we're just not. And so the, the faster we get over that and the, and the quicker that we become human with our team and we're in the trenches with them and we, we acknowledge when we mess up. Now, again, you can not, you can acknowledge your wins too, but let's not spend all of our time beating our chest on. Look at this great thing that I did. Cause nobody likes that guy either. Let, let's be honest. So, so to kind of, to kind of wrap all this, this up as well.

I think one of the, one of the exercises that you can do to kind of roll these things in and really ensure that, that trust and transparency, is happening in your business is by doing one to ones. And for anybody who listens to the show on a regular basis, I talk about one to ones. I think one to ones is one of those things that probably made the biggest, biggest impact on my business.

When I first started doing this is probably 15 years ago and there was about a five year period of time where I knew what one to ones were. I knew I was supposed to be doing them. I had mentors telling me how important they were. So I had the information, but I didn't do squat with it. And so I'm sure some people listening, you can kind of relate to that. there's information, like you're like, I know the information, but I haven't applied the information, right? And then,

the just known information that's not applied doesn't do us any good, right? It's, it's, I don't want to say worthless because it's not worthless, but until you applied, it doesn't really have a positive impact on your, on your life. And so finally I got to the point where in my, in my business, I was a little bit frustrated and by a little bit, I mean a lot and everything was a problem and I blamed everyone and every situation, um, except the person who is actually responsible for all that, which is me.

which was as the late great Michael Jackson said, the man in the mirror. So when I finally got to the point in the business, said, you know what, I'm gonna make the time to start doing one-to-ones. There's like this really impactful, crazy thing that happened that really has kind of shifted, it's really shifted me and my leadership since...