The enemies of trust pdf

But in general you should assume that everything you say will circulate to the people who would be most affected by it. In some organizations, under some circumstances, people will immediately jump to the most paranoid, negative interpretation of all your comments and movements. You will likely find yourself apologizing for misdeeds that you did not commit and for events that occurred before you arrived.

Even if you act with the purest intentions and execute with the greatest skill, someone will object to your actions or to the results you achieve. Newton said that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, but you may take a small, seemingly harmless step that has a huge, negative impact.

Perhaps the organization is undergoing a structural change like a merger, reorganization, or layoff or all three. Memos and e-mails from senior managers, snatches of remembered conversations, phrases overheard in the parking lot—all of these are reread, rehashed, and analyzed word by word. People are also going to hold you accountable for what they think you said which may not be what you think you said for longer than you might believe.

Instead, treat employees like grown-ups. In the case of a layoff, share the performance data or competitive situation that makes reductions necessary. And be extremely cautious about making unequivocal statements such as the following:. Organizations also risk losing the trust of their people in times of crisis. Mark Braverman, a senior vice president with Marsh Crisis Consulting in Washington, DC, says companies that respond well to customers during crises very often neglect their own employees.

Recovering revenues is important, as is moving the company out of the media spotlight. But your people will not be able to wait until the flurry subsides. By the time you turn to them, the damage may be beyond repair. Under extreme stress, normally competent managers may feel fragile, guilty, overwhelmed, and unable to cope.

But employees feel just as much stress as you do, and they need calm, visible leadership far more than they normally do. When everyone worries, trust evaporates. The first lesson here is to get yourself some help. If you were not directly affected by the crisis, you may need only a quick check-in with an objective third party. Your perspective may be off. Acknowledging that fact could save you from some painful mistakes and could save employees and other stakeholders a lot of pain as well.

The second lesson is not to withdraw. Set an update schedule and keep to it, even if the update is that there will be no news until next week. Just as important, be physically and emotionally accessible to the people around you.

They want to know that it is okay to have feelings at work about whatever is going on. If you feel like stopping work for a few hours, or even a day, just to talk about what happened in an informal way, do it. Let people know that you are taking the time to think through what has happened, and that it is fine for them to follow suit. Your only choice, other than finding a different job, is to rebuild. We recommend that you follow these four steps. First, figure out what happened.

That may sound simple, but it rarely is. To build your own understanding, consider these questions. Second, when you have a reasonably good handle on what happened, ascertain the depth and breadth of the loss of trust. A sense of how much of the organization has been affected will help you avoid situations in which you try to put out a lit match with a full muster of firefighters or, by contrast, an inferno with spit.

Imagine the challenges facing the management committee of Lehman Brothers after a stockbroker in a Midwestern branch was discovered to have defrauded clients out of many millions.

A different level of response was required for different groups of clients. Third, own up to the loss quickly instead of ignoring or downplaying it. But acknowledging that trust has been damaged and starting the recovery process as quickly as possible can only be to your benefit.

Fourth, identify as precisely as possible what you must accomplish in order to rebuild trust. For example, you might need to change the relationship between people in the sales offices and people at headquarters from an adversarial one to a cooperative one. Or you might want to have people stop doing end runs around a department that has a reputation for arrogance. Then give yourself examples of what success will look like in practice. What specific shifts if any will you make in how decisions are made, how information flows, and how it is measured, reported, compensated for, and rewarded?

Should some reporting relationships be changed? Which areas might be merged, consolidated, or separated? We have seen internal rivalries dissolve almost instantaneously when competing areas come under the control of a single person. Keep an eye on practical issues: How will these valuable changes and initiatives happen? A short summary of this paper.

Download Download PDF. Translate PDF. After the fall of the Romanov Family in , Russia was thrown into a period of paranoia. The new communist government sought to weed out those still loyal to the Tsar, particularly those involved in monarchist activities, and those who were members of the White Army.

To combat the threat of a tsarist takeover and a return of the monarchy, Checka, under Felix Dzerzhinsky, developed a false-flag operation to lure both tsarist supporters and non-Russian foreign supporters into Russia to be dealt with. Code named Trust, the operation would span nearly a decade, fool almost everyone involve, and lead to the death or imprisonment of many people, including the British spy Sidney Reilly.

This paper will examine various sources to outline the main objectives of the Trust and if those objectives were met. It will begin by outlining a previous operation by Reilly to overthrow the Bolshevik government that lead to them implementing Trust. Because the story of Trust is full of intricacies, this essay will confine its scope to three main areas: the creation of Trust, the literary operation involving Vasily Shulgin, and the alleged capture and execution of Sidney Reilly.

Despite TRUST not being implemented until , we must look earlier to understand why it was implemented. In both January and August of Lenin survived two assassination attempts. U and O. U: Bolshevism's Early Secret Police. London: Macmillan, The unrest would allow for the assassination of Bolshevik leaders starting with Lenin,7 and the supposed counter-revolution set up by Reilly consisting of 60 White Russian officers.

London: W. Norton and Company, Inc. Last modified March 19, Accessed February 1, Whilst in Estonia, Yakushev made contact with a man by the name of Yuri Artamanov, a monarchist supporter who had fled Russia under the Bolshevik regime.

Unfortunately for Artamanov, the courier hired to deliver his letters was a Cheka agent. Born into an aristocratic family in what is now the Ukraine, he immigrated to England in the early twentieth century.

Fending off these enemies must be at the top of every chief executive's agenda. But even with constant vigilance, an organization and its leaders will sometimes lose people's trust. During a crisis, managers should enlist the help of an objective third party.

To understand and avoid the managerial behaviors that prevent employees from trusting their leaders. Brought to you by:. What's included: Educator Copy. Not teaching at a university? Register as a student Register as an individual. Overview Included Materials.