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“We’ve been talking a lot about trust … in a practical sense, what is one tip you would recommend leaders can do and how will things change for the better if they do?” I invite you to watch the video and let me know what you think about my response.

When it comes to safety and trust, surely it must go both ways. Any employee ought to be able to safely go about their daily work in conditions that don’t put them in harm’s way. This includes adequate training and development of skills and appropriate use of any equipment. There is also a responsibility on employees to follow occupational health and safety guidelines which are in place to protect them from harm.

What we know is when you genuinely try to understand others, when you start with a clear intention to want to listen empathically, to understand them and to help them find ways to make life better for them, not only is the outcome going to be good for the other person, but reciprocity kicks in and ignites neural chemicals in your brain that make you feel good, increases your focus, increases your clarity and increases your creativity.

Self-trust includes many other forms of self, including self-esteem, self-acceptance, self-respect, and self-efficacy. However, all point toward this important and inescapable truth that for us to be able to respect and trust other people, we first need to respect and trust ourselves.

Rather than wait for something to go wrong, when trust is damaged and you need to be transparent to rebuild the damaged trust, wouldn’t it be better to be a bit more proactive and avoid damaging trust in the first place? Transparency can be a core strategy to proactively earning, building and maintaining trust, rather than only being a strategy when trust has been broken.

Being open and receptive to new ideas and innovation will require for you to be vulnerable … to be able to embrace uncertainty, risk and to be ready to experience a range of emotions and to be willing to allow others observe these emotions in you.

Most of us find it hard to trust someone when they don’t achieve the results we expect of them, or don’t apply themselves to the extent that successful and expected results are achieved … even though they appear to have the talent (and/or competence) to achieve.

Most of us are average – and despite what many ‘motivational gurus’ tell us, it’s ok to be average – it ought to be – because most of us are. Now, I realise as you’re reading this you might be thinking that you’re not average, and that could be so. Although, science validates most of us overestimate our own competence.

In a world where the social media platforms use algorithms to send us information that we seem to be interested in, based on our search and click history, there is a clear and present danger that we are at risk of reducing rather than broadening our perspectives and understanding of diverse and different points of views and experiences.