Trust: A Workshop

Today I am at Kansas State University Staley School of Leadership Studies delivering a workshop on “Trust” to leadership students. The opportunity to work with young adults who have chosen as part of their college experience to develop the leader within them is a favorite of mine. I get to push them to think deeper about their experiences and how they extract meaning from them to become a more impactful leader.

Nothing in life is random. Everything happens for a reason. It is our responsibility to discover its meaning if we are to grow purposefully. Let’s start at the most basic level: building meaningful relationships. We meet people all of the time. Most of the time it is a pleasant experience and every-once-in-a-while we sense we are meeting someone special, someone who will come to have more permanence in our lives. Have you thought about what your “x” factors are that pull you into the potential of a meaningful relationship? Today I will explore that question with the students at KSU Staley School of Leadership.

On most people’s list is “trust.” But what exactly is trust? In “Trust: Understanding My Why” I juxtaposed two opposing perspectives, one externally focused and one internally focused. When we talk about trust we generally are assessing something externally: a person, a situation, etc. However, my question is this: can we ever truly trust externally if we do not fully trust who we are internally? I encourage you to think about your strengths, purpose and values in your quest to answer that question.

Why is having clarity in both your internal and external trust a determining factor in the value you bring to every experience? If I have absolute clarity in who I am and who I am not, I am free to equally celebrate the environments where I thrive and the environments where others thrive. This is the essence of peak performance in teams! 

#KStateSSLS #trust #meaningfulrelationships #workshop #peakperformance #newauthor