Kathy Bardsley, Manager, Leadership & Organizational Development, from Cox Communications, Orange Coast recently spoke on the topic of “Starting at the Top – Developing a Culture of Trust” for the Orange County chapter of the American Society of Training and Development.    In an era of seemingly endless political and corporate scandals, it appears as if leaders have lost their character and integrity.  Yet we know that leaders can not be successful if they can not be trusted by those they lead and the customers and communities they serve.\n\nKathy provided insight into how Cox Communications, Orange Coast and the entire national CCI corporation has defined and implemented a culture of trust beginning with the senior executives and cascading throughout the company.  This is how they did it:\n

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  • Defining a Leadership Legacy: leaders individually and as teams creating their legacy statements and committing to the behaviors by which they will “lead the way”

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  • Committing  publicly as a company to being the “Trusted Provider” to employees, customers and the communities served

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  • Assessing policies, practices and procedures against the Trusted Provider vision

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  • Defining trust based behaviors and training all associates in those behaviors, and including the behaviors of trust in all other related training

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  • Incorporating the behaviors of trust into hiring practices, performance assessments, success factors, internal and external surveys and reward systems

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\nAll CCI employees learn about the Franklin Covey Five Ways of Trust:  SELF, TEAM, COMPANY, CUSTOMER, COMMUNITY.  “As trust is manifest in each successive wave, the effect of trust becomes cumulative and exponential.” Stephen M.R. Covey\n\nSome key trust behaviors: Listen First, Acknowledge Reality, Right Wrongs, Keep Commitments and Show Loyalty.\n\nTry it:   Write your own legacy statement\n\n1. Think about how you want to be remembered…known…perceived.\n\n2. Write 2-3 sentences that best describe you.\n\n3. Write  2-3 sentences that others might use to describe you.\n\n4. Write a statement about how you hope to NEVER be described.\n\n5.  Look at what you’ve written in steps 2, 3 and 4 and craft a legacy statement.\n\n6.  Write the statement from step 5 on one side of an index card and on the back write the behaviors you must  demonstrate to fulfill this legacy.\n\nLearn. Grow. Develop.\n