Trust…On The Bright Side of the Road–DeMarco Banter

Little darlin’, come with me
Won’t you help me share my load
From the dark end of the street
To the bright side of the road

Into this life we’re born
Baby sometimes we don’t know why
And time seems to go by so fast
In the twinkling of an eye

Let’s enjoy it while we can
Won’t you help me sing my song
From the dark end of the street
To the bright side of the road  -Van Morrison

I have written a good bit on trust—but I keep going back to it. Without trust we all live in misery. Skepticism has its merits—I know—I am a bit of a skeptic…but trust is indeed crucial to team effectiveness and cohesiveness. Cultivating trust is not easy—but the place to start is with the leader. As leaders we must place our trust in the team first. We have to illustrate and illuminate a belief in our team’s competence and capabilities. We must value the contributions of the team by trusting with increasingly difficult tasks and the autonomy to match. There are leaders who believe they should “test” employees. Is that trust? This “test” can do incredible harm to the overall well-being of the team. Remember trust is a two-way street—and the sooner we as leaders start down our side of the road—the sooner our team will accelerate down theirs.

So—do you want to live on Van Halen’s Mean Street or Van Morrison’s Bright Side of the Road—as leaders…it’s our call.

“At night I walk this stinkin’ street past the crazies on my block
And I see the same old faces and I hear that same old talk
And I’m searching for the latest thing, a break in this routine
I’m talkin’ some new kicks, ones like you ain’t never seen
This is home, this is Mean Street” -Van Halen