How Do You Let Go When You Don't Fully Trust Your Team? | Rob McKenna | ScaleUp Radio #643

How do you let go of control when so much of the business still runs through you, and you're not sure the team is ready for it? Dr Rob McKenna spent 25 years studying trust as a psychologist, built a company to measure it, and explains why delegation is really a transfer of trust. Rob is CEO and founder of WiLD Leaders, which helps founders and leadership teams measure and build trust, from teams of four to organisations of thousands. In this conversation he explains why trust is not a feeling but something with a blueprint you can measure and run as a KPI, why it is built by repair rather than by being perfect, and why the founder is so often the thing standing between a business and the delegation it needs. He is candid about getting a lot of this wrong in his own company, and in his own marriage. Chapters 00:00 [Cold open] [00:58] What WiLD Leaders is, and how trust became the work (rec 06:56) [04:34] Leaving a 25-year academic career to run a company (rec 10:32) [06:46] Why trust is measurable, not just a feeling (rec 12:44) [09:42] Meeting Stephen Covey, and measuring trust by speed and cost (rec 15:40) [13:09] The mentor who taught him what capital really costs (rec 19:07) [19:40] People are the business, but only 4% measure them (rec 25:38) [28:43] Trust is built in systems of repair, not perfection (rec 34:41) [31:21] What trust actually is, and why vulnerability takes courage (rec 37:19) [34:36] Why this works at four people, not just four thousand (rec 40:34) [39:38] The trust quadrant, and the 48% in the jungle (rec 45:36) [43:20] Delegation as a transfer of trust (rec 49:18) [47:48] One thing to take away, plus quickfire (rec 53:46) About the guest Dr Rob McKenna, CEO and founder of WiLD Leaders. https://www.wildleaders.org https://www.drrobmckenna.com   / drrobmckenna   Mentioned in this episode Whole Leaders, Wild Trust, by Rob McKenna, with a foreword by Stephen M. R. Covey The Speed of Trust, by Stephen M. R. Covey (2006) The Fog of Work, by Adam Tarnow Patrick Lencioni, on trust and vulnerability About the show ScaleUp Radio is a podcast for founders of established businesses who have hit a ceiling, or can see one coming. More than 600 episodes with the founders who got past it. All 600 episodes: https://smart90.co.uk/scaleup-radio Subscribe on YouTube:    / @scaleupradio   From Smart90 Smart90 is the 90 day planning platform behind this show. If something in this episode sounded familiar, the Scaleup Challenges II report analyses what 305 founders said about the same problem: https://smart90.co.uk/scaleup-challen... #ScaleUpRadio #BusinessPodcast #Trust