Earning Trust is Easy

Gail: It's communication is transparency, it's admitting mistakes. I mean, those are the things that earn trust. One of the things that young leaders fall into a trap about, and I know this happened to me too. I would lay out the direction and go, okay, that was that. And then not realize that you can't just do that once. I once upon a time had advertising for AT&T. And the rule of thumb was you have to hear a commercial three times before you even know who the sponsor is. So that really stuck in my head because people need to hear your strategy three times, four times, five times, you can't over-communicate, it's impossible. I've never heard an audience groan that I am telling them, okay, I'm going to tell you the case for change. I never heard anybody go, not this again. Change is complicated, and if you don't lay out the why and the rationale behind it, you're going to lose the trust of your folks.