“Trust Me, I’m a Leader”: Why Building a Culture of Trust Will Boost Employee Performance – and Maybe Even Save Your Company

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Do your employees trust you? The brutal truth is probably not. It may not be fair, and you may not want to hear it, but chances are that previous leaders have poisoned the ground on which you’re trying to grow a successful business. Make no mistake: Unless you and all the leaders in your organization can gain the trust of your employees, performance will suffer. And considering how tough it is to survive in today’s business environment, that’s very bad news for your company.

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About the Author

John Hamm is one of the top leadership experts in Silicon Valley. He was named one of the country’s Top 100 venture capitalists in 2009 by AlwaysOn and has led investments in many successful high-growth companies as a partner at several Bay Area VC firms. Hamm has also been a CEO, a board member at over thirty companies, and a CEO adviser and executive coach to senior leaders at companies such as Documentum, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, TaylorMade-adidas Golf and McAfee. John teaches leadership at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. To read John Hamm’s full biography, click here.

People Quit Their Boss… Not the Company!

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When I give my ‘No Nonsense Retention’ speech to groups across the country, I get frustrated feedback from audience members about poor leadership hurting retention in their organization. Regardless of the level of leadership you hold in the organization, you will drive yourself crazy if you try to solve all of the location or facilities problems; much less the rest of the organization. Concentrate on your sphere of influence regardless of size and create your own little island within the organization by controlling what you can control… which is A LOT. What can you control? You can control the following items for sure:

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About the Author

Jeff Kortes is known as the ‘No Nonsense Guy.’ He is the President of Human Asset Management LLC, a human resource consulting firm specializing in executive search and leadership training. He has trained hundreds of first-line supervisors, managers, and executives during his career. His approach to training is no-nonsense, and practical.

Jeff is also a member of the National Speakers Association and a regular speaker on the topics of retention, recruiting and leadership. To read Jeff’s complete biography, click here.

Your Personal Path to Better Leadership

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What You Can’t See
There are innumerable resources on how to be a more effective leader, but what if you asked the people you work with – what advice would they give you?

Would they tell you to take your greatest strengths and run with them?
Or
Would they suggest some areas to work on?

Would their advice make you nod your head?
Or
Would their insights surprise you?

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About the Author

Emma WilhelmEmma Wilhelm, M.S., is senior writer and product developer at Inscape Publishing, where she helps to develop innovative training and development products. Along with Jeffrey Sugerman, Ph.D., and Mark Scullard, Ph.D., she is coauthor of The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader. To read Emma’s complete biography, click here.

Have You Earned the Right to Lead? Ten Deeply Destructive Mistakes That Suggest the Answer Is No (and How to Stop Making Them)

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There are people in every organization you know whose titles indicate they are leaders. Often, and unfortunately, their employees beg to differ. Oh, they don’t say it directly, not to the boss’s face, anyway. They say it with their ho-hum performance, their games of avoidance, their dearth of enthusiasm. Leaders – real leaders who have mastered their craft – don’t preside over such lackluster followers. If reading this makes you squirm with recognition, you may have a problem lurking.

You’re really just masquerading. You haven’t yet earned the right to lead.

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About the Author

John HammJohn Hamm is one of the top leadership experts in Silicon Valley. He was named one of the country’s Top 100 venture capitalists in 2009 by AlwaysOn and has led investments in many successful high-growth companies as a partner at several Bay Area VC firms. Hamm has also been a CEO, a board member at over thirty companies, and a CEO adviser and executive coach to senior leaders at companies such as Documentum, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, TaylorMade-adidas Golf and McAfee. John teaches leadership at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University.

Inspiring Employees with a Values-Rich Environment

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Even if your corporate culture leaves a lot to be desired, managers can create a localized environment that inspires your employees to achieve peak performance. It’s a fact that I discovered over and over in my work for JetBlue, Southwest, Doubletree and other companies with high-performing cultures: the vast majority of your employees want to work in a place where people care about customers and each other, are fully engaged, take pride in their work, and feel the obligation to continually improve. In other words, they want you to create an inspiring culture, even if it’s just in your department. They will even help you create it, if you show them the way.

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About the Author

Ann Rhoades, author Built on Values: Creating an Enviable Culture that Outperforms the Competition, is president of People Ink, a culture-change consulting firm. Ann serves on the Board of Directors for JetBlue and P.F. Chang’s. She was one of the five founding executives of JetBlue Airways; Chief People Officer for Southwest Airlines; and Executive Vice President of Team Services at Doubletree and Promus Hotel Corporations. To read Ann’s complete biography, click here.