Trust on Purpose

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you Inspired by the book, Humor, Seriously by Naomi Bagdonas and Jennifer Aaker, we discuss how a little levity in our relationships can release tension and pave the way to trust. We loved exploring this topic and had some laughs, as we considered humor (or 'humour' if, like Ila, you speak Canadian) can build trust. We also challenge listene...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you There is a toxic strain of positivity loose in some workplaces that, if left untreated, can severely weaken trust. In this episode, Ila and Charles look at “toxic positivity” and how this form of dishonesty can damage people’s trust in each other. We also offer some ideas for what you can do to help yourself and the people you work with if you see...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you Fire fast. Sounds like a sniper training exercise rather than an organizational norm, but some managers and organizations believe making quick decisions to fire when employees aren’t meeting expectations is the best approach. Ila and Charles discuss the damaging effects of such decisions to all parties involved and how to find more success in hiri...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you In Part 2 of a conversation with the podcast’s first-ever guest, Charles and Ila talk with Dr. Amanda Blake about how we can learn to pay attention to sensations we feel in our bodies, what they might be telling us, and how to use our new awareness to face life’s challenging situations with confidence and self-trust. We want to thank the team that...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you For the first time on Trust on Purpose, Ila and Charles welcome a guest to share in a discussion about trust. Amanda Blake is an expert in the domains of body awareness and body coaching and author of “Your Body is Your Brain: Leverage Your Somatic Intelligence to Find Purpose, Build Resilience, Deepen Relationships and Lead More Powerfully.” This...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you   Ila and Charles put the spotlight on how we can sometimes miss the mark in building trust by not knowing what really builds or damages it in the eyes of others. We can say and do things we believe are trustworthy when, in fact, they aren’t received that way. Ila and Charles offer a roadmap for paying attention in both small and big moments, so o...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you The richness of the trust framework is such that  Charles and Ila continued their last conversation (Episode 42) about how focusing on one trust domain at the exclusion of others can unintentionally create distrust. In this episode, they look at more ways using the trust framework can help you build stronger, more trusting relationships on purpose...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you The Trust Framework that Charles and Ila use to talk about how to build, maintain, and rebuild trust has within it 4 domains. Like most things in life, these things are sometimes in conflict, or at least competition, with one another. There was so much to talk about the reality of COMPETING DOMAINS that we split it into 2 parts. In this first epis...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you Is it possible to maintain trust during layoffs? Ila and Charles believe so - in fact, they believe trust can even be increased during difficult times if leaders are intentional about how they talk about what is happening and allow for the humanity of the situation to have a voice.   We want to thank the team that continues to support us in produc...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you Those who have a tendency to “people please,” or help, fix, or say yes to every request, do so for a myriad of reasons, mostly very well-intentioned. But jumping into fixing something or over-committing to requests in order to please others can cause hard feelings, overwhelm, and ultimately trust breakdowns. Ila and Charles unpack how behaviours t...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you When we assess that others are held to different standards than us or we have a boss who continually changes their mind, what's the impact? Ila and Charles talk about how inconsistencies in others' behaviour damages trust and how to have conversations that mend, using a framework and "trusted" language.  We want to thank the te...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you Do you ever get a niggling feeling that someone isn't trustworthy? What makes you feel that way? In this first episode of 2023, Ila and Charles discuss the fact that, unfortunately, not everyone is to be trusted. They discuss what your body could be telling you and how to balance gut feelings with factual data.  We want to thank the team that...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you Implicit promises are the assumed commitments we believe others have made to us, even when they haven’t spoken them. They are the things we believe they “should” do. And you know what they say about assuming. Ila and Charles get into a juicy conversation about what happens when we don’t clarify what we expect of another person or what they are pre...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you “Seeking help is an expression of trust.” Upon hearing this quote from Adam Grant, we immediately wanted to unpack it in this week’s episode. No one knows everything; we all need help sometimes. But asking for help is hard for many of us and particularly difficult if trust is lacking in a relationship. This week’s conversation is inspired by Adam...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you Dealing with anyone who consistently fails to come through on their commitments is difficult. When it’s your leader, it can be downright painful, career-limiting if you choose to address it, or completely overwhelming if you ignore it. Ila and Charles use a listener story to illustrate how to talk to a consistently unreliable leader and come out t...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you Most teams shift from time to time, if not regularly. Each time someone new joins the team, critical conversations need to be had to create understanding and alignment of the team’s shared vision, agreed-upon behaviours, and standards of competence. Inspired by a listener’s real story, Ila and Charles talk about the dynamics that shift when team m...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you When a peer is promoted and is now your boss, things change. The situation can become more complicated when one of the other team members applied and didn’t get the promotion. It can feel overwhelming, and many new leaders have no idea where to start. Ila and Charles describe the courageous things a new leader can do to build trust in all this com...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you Have you joined a team only to realize something was amiss? When a leader joins a new team, we inherit everything that came before us and sometimes that includes distrust. In this episode, inspired by a listener's story, Ila and Charles discuss the indicators of a team that had low trust, even distrust and what, as a new leader, we can do to...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you How often are you asked to “trust the process” about something you don’t understand? While that phrase is meant to quell the unease that comes with following an unfamiliar process, it can create more unease rather than less. Ila and Charles discuss why it’s difficult to trust a process, especially one we don’t fully understand and how we can help...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you Don’t believe everything you think you know. Your beliefs about what trust is, how it’s built, maintained, damaged, and repaired have been developed over your life so far. Ila and Charles debunk 5 commonly held “myths” that will have you examining some of your beliefs about trust and possibly re-thinking assessments you’ve made in your relationshi...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you Without meaning to, we all do and say things that might cause others to think we are dishonest, insincere, or even lacking integrity. These things damage trust if we don’t pause to think about how we want to be seen and how to avoid them. Ila and Charles discuss the power of being intentional about building trust in what we say and what we do; abo...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you Reliability is essential to our self-identity for many of us. This conversation delves into the sticky situations we find ourselves in when our inability to get something done calls into question our reliability and how it can lead to damaged trust. Ila and Charles share personal stories that illustrate the need for upfront and transparent convers...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you How do you assess someone’s trustworthiness? For some people, competence is the first thing that comes to mind. There are things we all say and do that can damage others’ assessment of our trustworthiness in the domain of competence, and it can have a lasting negative impact. Ila and Charles examine what these “enemies of trust” are, specifically...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you Whether we mean to or not, we may behave in ways that make people question whether or not we care about them and what they value - a sure way to damage trust. Most of us don’t intend harm or disrespect. In fact, our intentions are often good and pure. Ila and Charles discuss very real examples of the things we do that show we lack care for others,...

Send us a message - we'd love to hear from you The best results are achieved when everyone has a voice and freedom to debate. Ila and Charles discuss how difficult some people find conflict and debate to be and what we can do to build teams that support productive conflict with trust in service to finding the best solutions and results. We want to thank the team that continues to support us in...