Trust is too often misunderstood and underrated. A friend shared his reflection about a parable he heard from his father which resonates strongly with me as a teachable moment.
The story goes, a man was hanging off a cliff with one hand in desperate need of help. “Help me” the man yelled over and over again. All at once, he heard a voice say “Let go.” Confused the man replied, “what did you say?” The voice again said, “Let go?” Who is this?! The man cried out now desperate and indignant? “God,” the voice replied calmly. The man paused for what seemed to be an eternity. He then responded with a firm conviction, “Is there anyone else?!”
Funny, but like most parables, painfully true! Trust is the “oil” to the engine of our lives. Without it, everything locks up! Cultivating trust means that sometimes the “help” that we are expecting is not the “help” that we will get, but it doesn’t mean it’s not the “help we need.” The irony of the “the man and the cliff” story is that the man didn’t know that 20 feet beneath him, indiscernible due to an impenetrable fog, was an outcropping of plush evergreen trees that would halt his descent, should he choose to “trust” and let go, to usher him to safety.
Stephen Covey maintains in his book, The Speed of Trust, that trust is the ex-factor for maximizing team and organizational performance. For a moment, reflect on the number of times you missed out on an opportunity because you failed to “trust” a team member, colleague, or leader-manager who had an insight that took you out of your comfort zone that would have led to radical personal and organizational growth.
Each week, challenge yourself to seek, earn and cultivate trust.