— To follow is a bullet of wisdom on leadership. It comes from Tom’s rifle, named Shot, who has seen it all. You’ll get the drift by clicking Blog in the menu at www.tomnewhouse.com. —
ONCE WHILE HUNTING my handler and I came upon a broken arrow. It was in thick grass with the top half kinked to one side. The two parts were still joined, but barely. With a lot of patience, some careful molding, and a little glue, that arrow was restored. It had a spot which was slightly rough, but it shot true.
How about broken trust? Can it be restored? J. Folkman, whose research we have shared in recent blogs, has found that trust in work settings can be restored about 13% of the time. That’s not much, but because trust benefits are high, giving restoration a “go” is worthwhile. Essentially, getting trust back is doing those things to build trust that we have already discussed. But to reiterate a big idea, pursue a positive relationship. That may include apologizing and acknowledging what you did wrong.