According to the 2018 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends report, “Senior leaders must get out of their silos and work with each other more.” Developing trust connects you with your environment and frees your mindset. Contributor Tony Holmwood, cultural change and leadership coach and author of Best Behaviour.

Your instincts, or intuition is felt in the centre of our body and will indicate your growth pathway. Once you begin to trust and understand your intuition, you deepen your self-awareness and become more attune to what your body awareness is telling you. This has significant health benefits as your intuition helps to free the mind and employs our second nature, common sense, and draws on a lifetime of experiences and learnt emotional associations. When we understand our instincts and learn who we are, our instincts become more about trust than being protective. 

Drop your guard and expectations to be more self-aware and authentic
We learn trust when we embody trust and rely on our value system (intuition) to become more instinctive and authentic. We tend to deepen our trust through mastering relationships and developing our critical reasoning skills. We come to appreciate the characteristics of trusting people. By freeing the mind and employing our instincts for reasoning and digging deeper into conversation, we learn to release the noise, distractions, self-doubt and negative self-talk in our mind. An estimated 75 percent to 90 percent of all doctor visits are for stress-related issues. Developing our self-awareness allows us to better regulate and understand stress. The positive, centred, present state also provides better listening skills and the freedom to grow.

Self-supporting teams allow us to better present arguments, analyse and learn logical decision making. At the point we have resolved our self-doubt, and are confident, we need to self-reflect to move beyond the distractions and limitations of our judgements and thoughts, by dropping our guard, daring to be different, giving ourselves permission to be imperfect and confident, and being more centred, empathetic, intuitive, and growing our big picture awareness for understanding. Once we are more accepting of our environment, we can focus our awareness on opportunity – we no longer need to be protective and pass judgements to bring understanding and manage our esteem. 

Being logical and in our heads limits our trust and awareness. As a manager or leader, if we do need to analyse and logically define our arguments, we can do this in our personal time. Learn to delegate the detail to those who need to learn it. When we appreciate our trust instincts, we are more positive, creative, and independent in our decision making. We develop our trust, feelings and empathy by being more open, engaged, and adaptive when connected to our environment. This is supported by setting meaningful, purposeful future goals (our why) that align with your motivations or value system. 

The Balanced Behavioural Development Model
In the Balanced Behavioural Development Model (BBDM), every behaviour has a purpose. By definition, the 4 sets of Myers Briggs (MBTi) primary and secondary behaviours can only be aligned in this way to hold true. The DiSC quadrants and definitions also prove the model and development pathway. Behaviours influence our thoughts, which influence our emotional associations, which then influence our behaviours in a perpetuate cycle. The INFJ profile (stage 3) is perfect for HR, managers and coaching. The ENFP profile (stage 4) enables influencing and inspiring creative leadership traits.

The influence of Leadership Styles in building Trust
As a transformational leader (stage 4), when self-aware, we recognise the need for employees to grow and we are more able to coach and challenge them to build confidence and awareness. Employees love the calm, kind, selfless, and secure attributes of a trusting, emotionally intelligent manager or leader who can employ their spatial awareness, trust and executive functions to inspire and implement visions and strategy. 

Transactional leaders who are guarded rely on their judgements, thinking and logical behaviours and are more likely to identify with problems over solutions, they can be conventional and practical in their application and their protective style will likely influence their micro management. These boss styles are not learnt in employing their spatial awareness. They are reactive and typically talk policy and expense containment over growth. In focussing on problems, they may hinder employee and business growth. Setting future visions and strategy are a transcendent, free, social (typically right) brain function. Without inspired vision and strategy, or the security of a pathway to grow, employees may struggle to move beyond a fixed mindset.

Trust supports growth mindsets and leadership strength
The trend for businesses to move to agile teams where we represent our interests, our likes over dislikes, are how we can play to our strengths and build confidence and a strong character. Once self-confident, self-awareness and emotional growth is our next objective especially for management. Just being grateful for the beauty and bounty around you helps to fuel your awareness. 

When emotionally aware, we are more able to trust our capability and employ a growth mindset. A growth mindset allows us to address any shortcomings or learning stages. Becoming accustomed to every stage builds mental toughness and a well rounded, 360 degree view of the world – past, present, future, and inside to outside.