I recently read a story about a young man in Canada who found a stack of $20s totaling $10K next to an ATM at his college campus. It was obvious that this money had been left there by someone, but the question was would he take advantage of someone else’s mistake? Being honest, he turned the money in and received a reward of $500 from the security company whose worker had left it there.  

The story touched me in that here was a young man who could have had a lot more money but instead chose to do the “right” (honest) thing.

Let’s think about this in organizational terms.  How many times have employees in your district, school, or university spoken up or done the right thing only to be ignored, had someone else take the credit for their work, or been punished because their “idea” didn’t jive with that of administration?  How many times have they been told that their jobs were safe, they were going to get a pay raise, or that class sizes were to be reduced, which didn’t happen?  

Trust - it takes years to build it but only moments to destroy it.

Trust is the foundational element for building a high performing organization.  Without trust, there can never be strong performance which, ultimately, hurts the students.

Breaching the trust with employees hurts everyone involved. Take union relations for example - if ever there was an example of a lack of trust between two stakeholder groups who critically need one another, that is it. Each is ready to blame the other for poor performance, but yet rarely will they take responsibility for their actions. How does this affect students? What do they learn from this?

So, how do you build trust? Building trust begins with honesty, transparency, and involving employees in decision-making.  When was the last time administrators shared with teachers the details behind a particular challenge? Do faculty have and understanding of the myriad of issues administration must deal with on a day-to-day basis, and do they have a say in the ultimate solution to the problem that involves them?

We must give people credit for being emotionally intelligent, i.e., adults.  We all want to know about and have input on situations which potentially affect us - that is normal. I have found that when people understand the circumstances and believe that leadership will act in their best interest and the best interest of the organization - trust leadership - they will do the right thing.

Take a moment to build trust. Rather, take lots of moments to build trust - make it an ongoing priority. You will be amazed at the results you get.

Now, as Paul Harvey used to say, “here is the rest of the story.” The story of the young man’s honesty was picked up by the Canadian Broadcasting Company and 1 year later he was awarded an “Arthur Award” and received $17K as a prize - far more than had he kept the money he initially found.  Who says good deeds and honesty go unrewarded . . .

The Doctor is in . . .