You got it right. That trust is the core of our being — it is delicate like culture. However, it is, in other words, a palpable entity — one, we’d think of as possibly an extension, or outcome, that emanates from perceptible processes. Every literature, or culture, addresses itself to trust in families, friends, workplace, and society.
It’s also related loyalty. It’s, in business parlance, linked to ‘association’ between a company and client too.
No small reason why trust is the ‘hot-button’ template in business today — more so, because success of an organisation, in present-moment reality, or in the future, depends on leadership that propels strong connexions across not just bosses, colleagues and others, but also the inherent part of every person — in word and deed.
Yet, one fundamental detail is of immediate importance. Trust is, quite often, not given the place it deserves in leadership books, or lexicon. However, trust, in its essence, is not just critical to business, because companies now face uncertain customer demands, not to speak of pressures from competing frames of reference, if not companies alone, but also crises in business, restructuring, mergers, downturns, and corporate departures of the executive kind — from one better job to another. The last mentioned ‘regulation’ is often a defining moment — trust-destroyer.
I was re-reading The Trusted Leader, last week, where business experts and writers, Bob Galford and Anne Seibold Drapeau provide the wherewithal to turning difficult situations touched upon, in the preceding paragraph, into trust-building experiences. They engineer, in the process, a practical game plan to create a culture and legacy of trust that would run through every company — big, or small. Not only that. Their insightful work, based on long years of research and application, also demonstrates how trust inside a company promotes focus, fosters passion and innovation, and helps employers to retain the best talents and, in so doing, help bring out the best in their people and their companies. Result? Your company is better positioned to weather any storm and also seize opportunities for success — with a long-term objective…
80/20 Principle
Yet another inspiring idea of Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, whose exemplar of the ‘vital few’ — the 80/20 principle — which is now empirical ‘law’ has been verified in economics, business, and interdisciplinary science. Put simply, the concept states that 80 per cent of results flow from 20 per cent of causes. In other words, most of what exists in the universe has little value and yields just as much. However, it also speaks volumes of how a few things work wondrously well, and have just as much impact.
All the same, one cannot think of the 80/20 principle as a magic wand — one that the Magus brought along. It is, quite simply, an approximation — one that signifies the fact that the world is not 50/50; more so, because, effort and reward are not linearly related. But, one fact remains. In recent years, the idea of entrepreneur extraordinaire Richard Koch’s The 80/20 Principle — which he first espoused in his book by the same name, and I happened to re-read, a few weeks ago — has gained substantial ground.
Koch’s work showed how the principle could be applied not merely to help corporations drive business results, but also help individuals improve their lives. Koch explains how to become effective and happy by realising the importance of a handful of isolated people, or things. He extols that if one could concentrate on a few [ideas] that work best, you’d get what you want, or aspire for. Outcome? You could multiply your effectiveness, and even your happiness meter on the face and within — with the principle of accomplishing more by doing less.
In his yet another fascinating work, The 80/20 Individual, Koch breaks new terrain. He demonstrates a sublime notation: how the ‘law’ could be used to liberate oneself — a practical business tool that individuals themselves can use to increase their output and creativity in every aspect of their life, career, and also business. Besides, the book deciphers a new premise — that the 80/20 principle is at the heart of creation. It also states that creation is only a matter of rearranging things that already exist. It is also leveraging the most powerful forces available at one’s disposal.
It celebrates another lofty truth: that creation occurs when ideas and individuals ‘bump’ and ‘plan.’ Its foundation is uncomplicated and wholesome, because creation isn’t a mysterious process — not a patent of science, invention, or entrepreneurship. It can be ‘formulated’ by anyone who understands what drives one towards creation, or creativity. Because, what we understand, as individuals, we can jolly well build.
The 80/20 Individual is loaded with practical ideas to do a star-turn for yourself, and also help you [re]discover your true self on the basis of what great creative individuals — like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg et al — discovered what they could do better than anyone else. In the best manner possible — simply, and sensibly — with vision, values, enthusiasm, and courage.
