I lost my phone while on vacation recently. Somewhere on Heavenly Mountain in Lake Tahoe there’s a phone buried deep under the snow below the chair lift. Seems like bad news right? When I told people, many of them reached for their pockets and purses just to caress their own phones in an effort to reassure themselves that they didn’t lose their phone. Calm down people. Take some deep breathes. This is my story, not yours. And don’t worry, it has a happy ending.

We like to think trust is for our personal lives. We can easily know, feel, and build trust when it’s in relation to our children, our friends, our spouses and our family. When we only focus on trust in our personal life, our professional growth suffers. How do we build trust in our organizations? How do we go from “working with our team” to “trusting our team”?

I think it goes without saying that having a happy workforce is important. Data shows that happiness is an indicator of the quality of one’s work, especially over time. We know that when people feel part of team that has energy, collaboration, and sense of making a difference, productivity and retention go up (Harvard Business Review, Jan/Feb 2012). Successful teams have high levels of trust, shared accountability, and collaboration that makes the work fun.

This year has been a whirlwind. One thing entrepreneurship has taught me is that you can have a plan, but hold it loosely. If you hold too tight, you miss opportunities. If you hold too loose, you wind up chasing bright shining objects and falling down rabbit holes. I will admit to doing both.

A study by the University of Iowa recently found that a sense of belonging and attachment to a group of co-workers is a better motivator for some employees than money.

Remember when you were in middle school and you had to run an errand in between classes? Sometimes you would be walking the empty halls and a hall monitor would pull you aside and ask, “Do you have a permission slip young man/lady?”

A leadership philosophy is the way we see ourselves as leaders. This philosophy guides our actions, our behaviors, and our thoughts. Our philosophies are influenced by external and internal forces. We can change who we are as leaders by simply changing our philosophy of leadership. Leadership philosophies can change as you grow to understand yourself within the context of leading. 

A leadership philosophy is the way we see ourselves as leaders. This philosophy guides our actions, our behaviors, and our thoughts. Our philosophies are influenced by external and internal forces. We can change who we are as leaders by simply changing our philosophy of leadership. Leadership philosophies can change as you grow to understand yourself within the context of leading. 

Accountability is the guiding principle that defines how we make commitments to one another. It is how we measure and report our progress, how we interact when things go wrong, how much ownership we take to get things done. In essence,  it is the nerve center that runs throughout every part of the organization, through every working relationship to every member of every team.