Choose Trust

"The painful exercise of learning by doing." Ismail Amla has done a lot, and so learned a lot. And, he says, "for a services firm trust is everything."In this podcast interview he shares the three ways to build trust, how he learned from the damage he caused early in his career by only obsessing about hitting his numbers, and provides real insight into how large companies can be as trusted as small ones if they deliberately decide to.Ismail runs professional services for the giant tech company, NCR, which is a major force in payments around the world. He's had big jobs at IBM, Capita, Capco, and was a partner at Accenture. In all of these roles he's had big numbers to hit, and focused on how to grow the businesses for which he was responsible. But, he says, he's come to realise that building long term, high trust relationships is the key to success.So how do you combine this with the need to hit quarterly targets?Ismail is also a board member of two major British institutions, Network Rail and UK Sport.He is the co-author of a book called 'From Incremental to Exponential' , which looks at how large businesses can innovate to massively grow just like small ones.If you like this episode do please subscribe and share. And if it resonates, and may be relevant to your business, do contact stuartm@mutual-value.com.

How do you hit your numbers and close deals while building trust? Ismail Amla runs professional services for NCR and on Friday 22nd September the full interview with him will be published here. This is a one minute preview...Do subscribe and share.And contact stuartm@mutual-value.com if this resonates.

Why is high trust leadership so important? Here's why, in one minute.This is a clip from our podcast discussion, 'A new high trust model of leadership'. Do listen and, if it piques your interest, click on the full 20 minute episode which is in this feed.If you are a leader, or develop leaders in your organisation, this will be relevant.

The co-authors of a book need to finalise their thinking about a key chapter. This is a 20 minute excerpt from the discussion.The book is Choose Trust, the chapter is on leadership, and we are the authors, Stuart Maister and Kevin Vaughan-Smith. Everyone find themselves leading at some point. It's not just a title, it's a role in a situation.And the one thing all types of leaders have in common is that they are seeking to take other people on a journey, hopefully with a clear direction and maybe even a vision of what the destination will be. Here's the thing: those following usually have a choice about whether to stay on the journey. Which is why trust is so important - when they no longer trust the leadership, they'll jump off as soon as they can.So how do you ensure you're a high trust leader or leadership team? That's the subject of this chapter of our book, and we explored this together based on our thinking about trust and that of many others who have developed models of leadership. We decided to record some of the discussion - and here's 20 minutes of the two of us developing together a new high trust model of leadership.Please follow the podcast and share if you enjoy it. And do check out our website www.mutual-value.com for more insights and thinking.

Greg Craig leads one of the UK's biggest construction firms, Skanska. He's taken them into the top quartile of major construction firms in terms of profitability and has led the company through COVID, major contracts with HS2, the challenging delivery of Crossrail and many other huge projects that are across Britain and you can see from your window.But he's retiring, and here he gives a frank account of what it takes to successfully lead a major construction firm right now by focusing on where you are strongest and sticking to that decision. We discuss in detail the frequent failure of the sector to put into practice all of its warm words about collaboration, partnership and trust, especially when major public sector contracts are at stake.But he also points out times when he's been able to establish really strong commercial relationships - often because of a full and frank discussion (sometimes known as a big argument).Greg's been a commercial leader, an Operations Director and MD within the business and so he's got the scars on his back to prove that he knows how to lead and deliver huge projects - and then lead others who need to do so. This is a view of how to build trust from someone right at the top of the tree in one of the most demanding and complex industries, where lives can be at risk as well as profits if you get it wrong.Do find out more about how we might help you lead, sell or collaborate with far higher levels of trust at www.mutual-value.com

Greece. The EU. Poland. The UK. Women in prison....wait, what?They are connected through one big issue: the need to be trusted. When trust collapses, so does the economy of the country and the prospects of an individual.Vicky Pryce is a leading expert in all of these. She is a Chief Economist who has worked with governments, large businesses - and is a trustee of the charity Women in Prison.Her recent posts have included: Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting; Director General for Economics at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS); and Joint Head of the UK Government Economics Service. She had previously been Partner and Chief Economist at KPMG and earlier held chief economist positions in banking and the oil sector. Vicky co-founded GoodCorporation, a company set up to promote corporate social responsibility.So who better to speak with about the importance of trust in leadership and what happens when it goes? She wrote the book 'Greekonomics' and 'Prisonomics' and speaks on the issues faced by women in the economy.If you enjoy this episode please subscribe and share and go to www.mutual-value.com to find out more about our work.