Building a High Trust Culture

Second installment in the series from Joel Peterson, Chairman of JetBlue Airways. As we did last week, I will summarize and add some thoughts.

Some headlines for you:

Personal integrity is the foundation of trust in any organization. If you say you are going to do something, just do it. Don’t make your team or your manager ask you about it. Tell them it is done before they ask you.
Leadership is critical. Leaders show and encourage respect when they empower team members, celebrate their contributions, and help them learn from missteps. Command and control leadership does not support building trust.
Positive always beat negative. Going negative reveals a general lack of respect and self-control. Your culture will be better served by celebrating what your own team is doing. Be a leader – do not go negative!
Respect is an investment. You want to build a great team based on trust? Nothing gets better results in team coherence, employee satisfaction, and organizational momentum than advancing the best interests of the your people.
Root out disrespect. Vigilant leaders are always looking to nip disrespectful practices in the bud. That means no tolerance for talking behind people’s backs, letting problems fester, or failing to give people the feedback they need to improve. If this is happening, you need to act quickly and put an end to it.
Respect isn’t the same as being nice. Disagreement is key yo great decision making. People in high-trust organizations feel secure in their ability to disagree – because they know how to disagree with respect.