Stop using your need for control as an excuse to express your distrust in others

Trust is such an interesting thing in business. Without it, your business will eventually hit the wall and explode.   For trust to exist between people, it must be both earned and granted.  If you have difficulty granting trust to others, there are many possible reasons. And apart from putting you on the analyst’s couch to discover your childhood traumas, or reliving every little way the other person has “let you down” in the past, let me suggest at least one possible reason why you don’t trust people: Because you don’t want to. Trusting others to do things means you have to relinquish control, and you might love to be in control.So you say you can’t trust others. Because you operate with a fear of losing control, it’s in your interest to keep people off balance – focused always on you, your whims, your undisciplined changes of direction, your second-guessing.  Most of the people in your organization are likely worthy of your trust. Whether or not you grant that trust to them is another question. When we grant trust, we give up a little control, perhaps a little ego, and maybe a little bit of certainty. It’s well worth the sacrifice to see your people act in an engaged, creative, and confident manner, unfettered from your need to control them.