Control & Trust

We all have our personal challenges with the idea of control. 

We either like to exercise a high level of control, which brings challenges, or we don't like the idea of control and let things/people be as they want to be, which also brings challenges.

This quote from Glennon Doyle on a recent podcast episode stuck with me as it relates to personal, team, and organizational leadership - "We only control the things we do not trust."

Wow!  Simple but true when I started thinking about it.

→ We don't trust our child will brush their teeth, so we monitor them.

→ We don't trust this team member to get the work done on time, so we either do it ourselves or micromanage the process.

→ We don't trust our leadership team to deliver the right messages, so we either do it ourselves or we fully script it (which then doesn't sound authentic to the person delivering it)

What situation are you trying to control today?

I would imagine that a desire or need for control is related to a lack of trust (deserved or not). Am I right?

Lack of trust limits our ability to create impact because our time and energy is spent controlling situations we shouldn't need to.

What can you do to increase trust so that you can release control and focus on adding the most value?