In this New York Times Op-Ed, David Brooks explains that on college campuses, students express diminished expectations and little faith in big institutions; yet they aren’t hopeless.
While this story articulates the sentiment of college students, I can assert with some authority that almost everyone has similar feelings. A major study of North American workers, conducted by Mental Health America, sponsored by the Faas Foundation, called ‘Mind the Workplace’, echoes the feelings expressed by these students, and further validates why over 70 percent of the almost 20,000 respondents speak poorly about their employer.
Because of the #MeToo movement, organizational leaders are scrambling to find a magic bullet to avoid exposures of wrongdoing. Breaking this to them gently, I assert that the only magic bullet is trust. People have no trust in leadership; and unless they do, no words, no training, and no programs will have any impact.
Currently I am writing a series of articles published in MoneyInc magazine entitled ‘A Boomers Guide for Millennials -The A B C’s of Leadership’, which addresses the characteristics leaders need to develop so that they can be trusted.
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