I'm working on training materials for a Client - materials that I will deliver next week. As I prepared some notes on trust - a topic I have facilitated learning on many times - I was thinking about the opposite of trust (distrust) and was reminded of this quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"Our distrust is very expensive."

Knowing that part of what I am going to teach is that trust is, in part, a verb (something that we do), it made me want to personalize Ralph's thought.

"My distrust is very expensive."

Thinking about distrust as a verb and in the first person puts the responsibility where it belongs - on us.

Which leads us to some important questions in all parts of our lives, including as a leader. Consider these questions as your personal leadership development activity for the day:

Who do I distrust?

Why?

What is it costing me, my team, my relationships, and/or our organization?

What can I do to lessen the cost, change the distrucst into trust or otherwise imporve the situation?

These questions can be applied to all parts of our lives, and if you are like me, the answers will be illuminating.