Leadership is a relationship between the leader and those who choose to follow. Trust is the foundation of that relationship. If you break trust, you damage your future as a leader. Trust is complex, but it can be broken down into four simple habits that, if practiced regularly, will raise your “trust meter” significantly whether you are the leader or the one who chooses to follow.

Rob Reindl, the recently retired head of H.R. for Edwards Life Sciences, is my guest today on the new podcast series called Lessons Learned: Proven Leaders Speak on Leadership. The series is not theoretical. Rather, it is filled with practical pointers for any leader or manager at any stage of their career. My experience is thatpeople in a leadership role benefit from solid ideas that help them evaluate their lives and careers. We all need encouragement, and we all need time to reflect on how we are doing and how we can improve.

Edwards Life Sciences is a tremendous story of both financial growth and social impact. The company spun out from Baxter Healthcare in April of 2000 at a market cap of roughly $800 million. Today the market cap is North of $15 billion.

Mike Mussallem, as CEO, and Rob Reindl, as head of H.R., worked closely together to build a culture of high trust and high performance. Their mission was not simply to increase shareholder value, but also to transform health care, especially in the field of cardiac disease. Indeed, the shareholders have benefited tremendously, but so have the patients, the employees, the doctors, and the community. It is a great story of trust building - done consistently and predictably - over fifteen years.

This podcast is exactly thirty minutes long. You can listen to it in your car, on a walk/run, or over a nice cup of coffee. It’s easy to stop and restart. Give it a shot and if you like it, please forward it on to a friend.

Thank you for YOUR trust in me to bring you only the best of content that helps you in your journey as a leader!