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Great Service Leaders Foster Trust

The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.

—Ernest Hemingway

We all live our lives on promises. From the time a child can grasp the concept of “cross my heart and hope to die,” there is a forever realization that anxiety can be only reduced through proof of trust while waiting for a promise to be kept. From “scout’s honor” to “I do” to “the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” we seek cues that allay our worries. Lifeguards, the bus schedule, and the spotlessness of a hospital room are all obvious artifacts of promises waiting to be kept.

All service begins with a trust gap, the emotional space between hope and evidence, between expectation and fulfillment. Service begins with ...

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