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.
Chapter
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 I’ve done it. And I literally can remember the very first one. And I’m gonna tell you the story about it too, cause.
I think it’s kind of valuable, but I had a technician. was fairly young, bright guy, hustled, got after it, like just, just was ready to take on the world. And, you know, those guys are amazing, but you also have to kind of harness and you have to, know, there’s certain things you have to do with, people that have that kind of drive in order to make sure that they’re, in a good spot. So
So one day it was, there was constant issues, but finally one day I sat down and one of my mentors just kept telling me like, how many times I gotta tell you, you gotta do one to one. You wanna know what’s going on, you gotta start doing these one to ones. And for me, really when I looked at him, I thought, it’s a form. It’s a form I have to fill out. And it’s just one more thing. And then when I fill out the form, what the heck am I gonna do with it? And then, right, so I went to all the reasons why I shouldn’t do it versus listening to the person who’s done it, it’s impacted him.
There was a reason he was my mentor, right? So I sit down and I remember talking with, with his technician and asking, you know, just being present. Like that was the bit. That’s the biggest thing about one-to-ones is, yes, you should have a little bit of an agenda, but really when it comes to doing these one-to-ones, it really needs to be more about, listening. Like it’s really coaching is what it is, but I remember sitting down and talking to him and he was married and him and his wife had a baby on the way.
And they were expecting a kid, right? mean, I’m sorry. they had a baby. So I had a technician and he was married and they had a kid on the way and they were living in an apartment and the wife was not having it. Now she’s pregnant. She wasn’t really working. So all of this was falling on his shoulders and just, you know, I can remember being a young married person with a pregnant wife. Like there’s a lot, like you feel like there’s so much pressure on you because you have to
get out and get after it and do the things and now you’re the entire livelihood. And if you fail, like all these negative thoughts come in your head. But I started talking to him about what is it that that’s going on? And he starts to share this with me and what his wife really wanted was to buy a house. She felt like buying a house was going to be one of those things that was going to allow them to feel a little more secure in their family. Cause now they’re, you know, life looks different when you start to have kids, you got to start thinking about things like schools and
whatever. And throughout this conversation, really what ended up happening is we ended up being able to match our wives together. Right? So, so for this guy, he was working five days a week for me, and then he was hustling on the side, the other two days a week. And sometimes at nights, trying to do other things to make money. Now I’m not talking about side work and I could do a whole other show on my passion. I’m so passionate about side work.
and about how, no, it’s not okay. And if you’re listening to this and you disagree with me, I’m happy to have a conversation with you, but I think it is stealing from your business is what it is. But anyways, again, he wasn’t doing side work competing with us. That’s not what he was doing. He was out doing work. He was like fencing, like whatever he could do. Like kid was hustling.
And so what we ended up doing was sitting down and coming up with a win-win, right? So he has this why in this goal and I have this why in this goal and we ended up matching them together. Right? It’s like, okay, well, cool. Like this is what your goal is. What do we need? And we started breaking this goal down, right? A couple of episodes ago, I, you know, I talked about goal setting and I talked about smart goals and I sat down with him and a whiteboard and we broke down the goal of buying a house.
Right? Like what’s the timeline? How much money do you need? Um, how much extra money do you feel like you need to make in order to do that? Which obviously tied right to bonuses, like, all right. So if you’re, instead of doing these other side gigs, if you’re picking up two extra jobs a day, you’re working less time, you’re making more money. Right. And then when he goes to the bank, the bank sees on his paycheck stub that he’s making more money from his job that helps him buy a house. Right. Like, so we just map this whole thing out.
And it was, it was pretty incredible within about six, I’m going to say six to eight months. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but shortly after their, their son was born, they were able to buy a house. Now that guy is still on the team today. And, and I, and I think, I think he’s still on the team today. which I think he’s still on the team today because he knows that, that I and the business care.
That’s it. Like we care. And if he’s got a goal, we will figure out a way for him to hit that goal. Right? If, if he comes to me or any of the leadership team, if he comes to me and he wants something that is just out of left field, not going to happen. There’s no confusion. He knows that I will say that’s not going to happen. Rarely does it rarely does that happen. Like rarely is
that does somebody come to me with something that’s so crazy, but you know, somebody comes to you and they want to raise and you’re like, great, how much have raised you? Like, I want blah, blah, blah dollars. Like, yeah, that that’s not going to happen. It’s fine. Say that be authentic, be transparent, just say it. It’s not going to happen. So now there’s not that weird in between, um, stage, but I think, you know, over the years, um, sitting down with, uh, with that, now we sat down for probably 30, 45 minutes. Cause we’d like map this whole thing out. was a really cool exercise.
but now, you know, 14, 15 years later, he’s still on the team, probably listening to this podcast, but, you know, how much money has he generated? How much money has he generated for the company? Like it’s been a win win situation. And honestly, had I not sat down and gone through this exercise with him, there’s a good chance that one or two things would happen. One, he just stayed so busy doing whatever he was doing on the side, making cash.
that he would have been burned out when he was at work or two, he’d have been looking for another job to make a buck or two more an hour. And the truth is staying where he is, he makes way more money now than he, you know, obviously did way back then. But, I think it’s, I think it’s a cool story. And again, doing one to ones, there’s so much, there’s so many positive impacts and I, I can’t even, I can’t even think of one negative impact from doing these one to ones, but from all the things we talked about with, with trust, with leadership,
Man, there is not a more valuable thing you can do for your team as a leader than to give them the space that they deserve to talk about what’s going on. I know that sounds like tell me about your feelings. And I know some people don’t like that. And I don’t feel like I’m a touchy feely person, but whatever it’s important. It’s impactful. And really the, can’t lead people if you don’t know what direction they want to go. Right? Like leadership is not.
steering the boat only where you want to go. You have to make sure that whoever is on the boat with you, you are all wanting to go in the same direction. And you don’t know that unless you ask certain questions. I listen, I know people that have had people on their team for a extended period of time. They sit down for the first time to do a one-to-one and they’re like, holy crap. didn’t know these huge things about this person and their life. And the truth is, is a lot of times it’s just because they didn’t ask.
And maybe, maybe they did ask, but maybe it’s one of those, you know, you know, you walk by somebody in the hallway and you’re like, Hey buddy, how’s it going? Good. Great to see you. Right? Like there’s no, there’s no relationship there. Like it’s kind when you walk in, know, to the gym or wherever you go, coffee shop bar, whatever. And you walk in and you’re like, give the head nine. You’re like, what’s up? Like, what’s up? Like that’s not a relationship. That’s a, I’m sure there’s a word for it. I don’t know what it is, but, make sure that when you’re leading, when you’re leading a team,
Dude, you got to take it more serious than that. You’ve got to lean in to the relationship side of it because it is so, so, so important to do that. So hopefully that is helpful to kind of uncover a little bit of kind of my thoughts on leadership and, really without trust leadership loses. mean, it really loses its direction. loses its impact.
all the positive things for leadership kind of dwindles away. If, if there’s no, if there’s no real authentic connection and communication between you and the person you’re connecting with.
I truly think that that what one of the things that separates good leaders from great ones is, knowing their teams. And I think the core of that comes down to doing one to ones. And I don’t care what you call them. You can call them whatever you want. we actually call them team member growth or growth progress forms. It doesn’t matter what you call it. but it does matter that you do them. It does matter that you give your team the time that they deserve to sit down and talk about what’s going on.
I can remember, I can remember way back in the day, given this, this, was really proud of this speech at the time. I’m embarrassed by it now, but given this speech about, you know, hang your crap at the door, you know, when you’re in here, you’re on my time and blah, blah, blah. Like how horrible is that? No wonder I couldn’t keep employees. Good Lord. And thank goodness. I thank goodness. I had mentors that kind of were kind enough to punch me upside the head and be like, have you lost your mind?
because that is who wants to work for that guy? Nobody wants to work. Hell, I didn’t want to work for that guy. But as I grew up in leadership, you know, sports was was the only leadership that I that I really had a hand part of, you know, that I was a part of that I saw on a regular basis. And for them, it was yell, kick, scream, do push ups, run laps. So, you know, you mimic what you learn, which is why it’s important that we do training for our team, because you bring a tech in or even a customer service rep or whoever.
And you go, okay, great. Yeah. You know, plumbing, great. Okay. Go plum. That’s not going to, you’re not going to win doing that. They’re not going to win. You’re not going to win. No one’s going to win. So, as we wrap this up again, just to kind of go over those, those key things again, clear expectations, hold your team and yourself accountable. Be consistent, whatever you do, be consistent, be, be empathetic and understanding train and then empower.
and then act with integrity, be transparent, be authentic, and then give your team time to do one-to-ones, or whatever you call them, but do the one-to-ones.
So with all this information, here’s what I’m here’s what I. So now with all this information, a couple of things you can do one, you can do nothing. You do absolutely nothing. You’d be like, yep, I heard Justin. That was all good information, but pass. I’m going to keep dropping hammers on people when they don’t do right. That’s fine. Here’s what I would do. I would probably do a little bit of a self reflection. I would do a self assessment of is my leadership. Do I have trust in my, does my team trust me? Right? Do they trust me to lead them?
in the direction that best benefits them, their families, and their careers.
Right? If you’re not sure and you’re, and you really, really want to know, do a survey. Like there are survey options out there. Um, think survey monkey is one of them. think that one’s even free. You can go create a little, uh, you know, a little self-assert or a questionnaire to send out to your team. That’s anonymous. Let them answer and be okay with the answers. Like don’t learn from them. There’s, there’s nothing wrong with it. Uh, make sure that you engage in your team. And I don’t mean the, what’s up sup head nod.
engagement, actually engage in your team.
Thank you for joining us today on this episode and listen, share with a fellow leader who could benefit from mastering leadership and trust until next time, keep setting those goals and watching your business and leadership transform. This is Justin Deese signing off from freedom blueprint podcast. Stay motivated, stay trustworthy, stay motivated, stay trustworthy, and as always keep crushing it.