Trust is a complex and far-reaching concept that pervades our personal and professional pursuits. We cannot bottle trust and sell it. Trust is based on an individual’s mental model that people are generally honorable. Social and ethical theorist Russell Hardin stated that “generalized trust must be a matter of relatively positive expectations of the trustworthiness, cooperativeness, and helpfulness of others.” Generalized trust is just one type of trust. The other type of trust is ‘behavioural’ trust, both of which are intangible imperatives of organizational culture that drive engagement and collaboration.
Trust increases the likelihood that people will communicate openly and adopt cooperative attitudes in order to work in integrated teams with a shared responsibility and shared objectives. Without trust relationships are dysfunctional and work effectiveness and performance suffer. Trust plays a critical role in leadership performance and organizational culture.
The word trust is derived for the German word trost, meaning comfort. This is an appropriate association because when we trust someone, we are comforted by the belief that this person has our best interest at heart and thus will not endanger us or put us at risk. Trust is a critical component in all human interactions, and often bestowed on the basis of how we experience a person’s behaviour toward us. Trust does not come automatically with positions of power. It must be supported by ongoing good behaviour, which then validates our confidence in bestowing our trust in that person.
Without deep personal behavioural awareness, many leaders do not have the knowledge necessary to understand whether they are personally meeting the trust needs of those they lead. The skill of Positive Presence is a unique virtual leadership development program that takes leaders to the next level by engaging their higher brain function through mindset, behaviour skill, and the power of Positive human energy
Catherine is the President and CEO of CORPORATE HARMONY, providing virtual solutions for leadership development and organizational culture change. Her leadership and coaching experience as a Project Manager in an ever-changing, fast moving technological organization with unrelenting demands drove her to the realization that a positive mindset and strength-building behaviors are essential for today’s complex and chaotic organizational systems. CORPORATE HARMONY’s virtual platform of programs, coaching and performance measurement, is an innovative online technology of tested proprietary content. The world-class content of CORPORATE HARMONY’s Positive Presence Program develops the skill of ‘Positive Presence’ and the necessary ‘Positive Presence Behaviour Competencies’ for maintaining a positive and energized mindset and increased performance in today’s complex work environment, and leading to a culture of collaboration and connection. Catherine’s vision for Corporate Harmony is to bring the skill of “Positive Presence” to the corporate world as it becomes more complex, ambiguous and chaotic. Catherine is uniquely positioned to impact organizations’ productivity and long term success, with her powerful vision of eliminating bad stress from every workplace around the globe, bringing purpose into the people equation to promote healthy, productive and meaningful work cultures and turn the tide on the neglect of mental health on a global scale. Catherine is author of the book: “CORPORATE HARMONY – The Performance Link for Today’s Modern Organization” Catherine can be reached at: Catherine.Osborne@corporateharmony.ca or go to ‘contact us’ on our website www.corporateharmony.ca. Catherine is available for consultation, and can be reached by 519-695-3407.