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“Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have a faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them.” *

That’s Steve Jobs speaking. And within those two sentences – his answer to whether his faith in technology was waning – lies an important leadership principle.

“Have a faith in people.”

He turned the focus from technology to humanity and he put the onus on management and ownership.

“Faith means trusting your people first.” *(Inc. magazine)

Most of us, I think, act as if we believe people – our kids, our employees – must earn trust.

Jobs disagreed. He had learned to trust first and from this lesson he unleashed the creative power of his team.

Trust is a gift given by strong leaders as a sign of their faith in their people.

“…teams with high trust move faster and produce better results at lower cost.” That’s trust expert Stephen Covey from his book The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything.

Radio doesn’t trust its people.

That’s why we make air talent read scripted liners.

That’s why we won’t let them talk more than 11 seconds at a time, and not at all except at predesignated spots on the clock. 

That’s why we have regional VPs waiting to pounce on mistakes, looking to find something wrong rather than celebrating what’s right.

Of course, that’s not Radio’s only problem.

A lack of investment – in the product, in the people who work for the company, in marketing and training – is a huge issue too.

But if we could find a few leaders who understand the power of trust, of having “a faith in their people,” I think the experience of listening to radio stations would start to improve.

And that’s really the reason we do what we do, isn’t it?