Ep. 3: Compassion | Trust In The Workplace | David Horsager

Welcome back to Trust in the Workplace for Leaders. Today we're talking about the compassion pillar. What do we find? We trust those that care beyond themselves. You know, if someone has intent beyond themselves, we tend to have trust for them. That's why it's natural or more natural to trust firefighters or nurses over some occupations because by their nature they tend to care beyond themselves. In one significant joint study, University of Southern California, University of Florida and a few other universities got together and created a very significant study looking at belittlement. What did they find? They found when people were belittled, made fun of, put down, they had a 33% decrease in performance. What's more, they had 39% fewer brainstorm ideas. What I thought was even more amazing was they also studied people that were watching the belittlement through a one-way mirror. Those watching the belittlement had over 20% less performance and over 20% less brainstorm ideas just because they were watching that belittlement and put downs and negativism happen. If you can create an environment of compassion where people can show they care, everything changes in the workplace and compassion leads to higher trust. I'm often reminded of the great Maya Angelou and what she said, people will forget what you said, they'll forget what you did, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. Don't underestimate the power of compassion. How do we show it in the workplace? A couple quick ideas today. Number one, be present. In this high-tech, fast-paced work environment, if you can just be present, you will be different. Dr. Francis Fry from Harvard has done several studies on mobile devices and says it is incredibly difficult to develop empathy and trust in the presence of a cell phone. In fact, you just pull out your cell phone and you've just created a barrier. An open phone when you're in a meeting changes everything. I'm shocked when I go into companies and I see someone, a manager, meeting with their employee with their laptop open and between them. You want to show you don't care? Do that. If we can be present, it changes everything. Second idea for today, appreciate. Appreciation is powerful. In fact, in last year's global study, in fact, the last several years running, the number one reason people leave an organization is not being appreciated or noted for notable work. When you appreciate people, try to make it about them. And specificity is so much more powerful than generalities. Like, good job. That's nothing compared to when you did that specific thing, I noticed and that helped us win in this project. Specificity wins. Sheldon Yellen is the CEO of Belfort Holdings. Well, he's been there. It's gone from five million dollars to 1.5 billion dollars. What's he most noted for? Every year, Yellen hand writes a birthday card to every single employee. 9,200 of them. In fact, he writes around 50 notes every workday because he's known for writing about 12,000 handwritten notes a year when he adds thank yous and anniversaries. And he says this is a way that he shows compassion to his workplace. In fact, it's created a compassionate culture. Of course, the danger here is if it ever becomes insincere. But showing sincere appreciation can make all the difference in the workplace. So be present, show appreciation. A couple ideas for increasing compassion, which always increases trust.