SUCCESS INSIDER: LEA BROVIDANI – THE TRUST ARCHITECT
Lea Brovedani is an author and speaker who is one of North America’s leading experts on trust. She has been named Top Thought Leaders on Trust for 2017, 2018 and 2019 by the organization Trust Across America. She is also the author of “TRUST Me – Restore Belief & Confidence in an Uncertain World” and “TRUSTED – Secret Lessons from an Inspired Leader,” is a contributing author in four other books and various business magazines around the world.
On this episode of Big Blend Radio, leading trust expert Lea Brovedani answers 10 Success Insider Questions. Known as “The Trust Architect,” she has been named Top Thought Leaders on Trust for 2017, 2018 and 2019 by the organization Trust Across America.
Globally recognized, Lea has worked in numerous industry sectors, specifically health and safety and education and in numerous countries including Canada, USA, Europe, Singapore, Africa, and Indonesia. She has developed training programs and workshops that focus on more productive and profitable workforces through leadership strategies that increase efficacy in communication and trust.
The Optimized Workforce Engagement Strategy is Lea’s proprietary leadership program that cultivates stronger and more solid leaders by improving their trustworthiness. This proven approach builds a more satisfied workforce and creates a more positive customer experience for the client. In turn, with an increase in confidence between all stakeholders, the outcome builds a more profitable bottom line for the organization. More at www.LeaBrovedani.com.
So what does it take to be successful in the world of leadership? Listen to our Big Blend Radio discussion with Lea Brovedani and read her answers to our 10 Success Insider Questions about her career, including the challenges she faces, as well as her inspirations.
1. What led you to become a trust expert?
When our children were little I spent a lot of time volunteering and spending time at the school. What I noticed were some teachers were great with the children, and other teachers struggled. At the end of the school year, I walked into the school, and there were three little boys walking out of their classroom. They were excited. It was the last day of school and like young boys of that age, they were throwing their hands up in the air and jumping up and down making noise and just really having a ball. It made me smile.
A few moments later the teacher walked out of the classroom yelling at them and taking away all their joy. It was over the top and didn’t, in my opinion, warrant the dressing down these young boys received.
I can’t remember the exact words she used but for a few minutes, she called them names and told them that they were awful and should be ashamed of themselves. I saw the joy leave their faces, their shoulders slump and their heads look down at the ground. I felt like I needed to do something, but I didn’t know what. I did go up and talk to her but all that did was anger her and make me feel bad. About this time I was working on my Practicum in Adult Education and I knew that I had to write a 3-day training program to complete the course. I decided to do one that helped teachers teach with emotional intelligence.
That started me on a journey to learn as much as I could about emotional intelligence and as I learned more, I could see these patterns emerging around why we trusted some people and not others. From this beginning of studying emotional intelligence to help the teachers at my son’s and daughter’s school, my interest and my passion grew to discover how we could be more trusted and trustworthy.
I call myself “The Trust Architect” because I design and create the blueprints for companies, schools and individuals who want to build more trust. People have to build trust themselves, but they get the process and specifications for what it takes to build that beautiful structure of trust from me.
2. What attributes do you have that make you a good fit for educating people about trust?
I realized a long time ago that I needed to know what makes things work. Not just clocks and radios and electronics but what makes relationships work? It’s a deep curiosity about how the world works, how we work and how we can be better. It makes me want to find answers for not just myself but for everybody. Probably the biggest attribute that makes me a good fit for educating people about trust is my awareness that it’s not the big things that we do, but the small things that we do that creates this feeling of trust. Okay well, sometimes it’s the big things too. I can help show people what those big and little things are.
3. Who or what inspires you?
There are a few people who inspire me. My children and my husband inspire me. They make me want to be a better person and to be someone that they can. Also, there are a couple of women who left such an indelible mark on my life, that their legacy really has inspired me. One was a tiny little lady from Nova Scotia, called Ruth Goldblum. She was someone who came from a small fishing village and went on to achieve so much in the history of Nova Scotia and making a positive influence on the children and people of everyone she came in contact with.
The second person is someone that no one will have heard of. It was a neighbor who showed me what love can do to motivate, trust and inspire. Her name was Marilyn Markwart. Marilyn could be difficult, irascible, and insulting. In spite of all of that, Marilyn loved the people she loved deeply, and for that reason, it showed me that even when people are imperfect, they could be trusted. It was her trust in me that led me to believe I could do more and be more than what I was born into.
4. Describe your ideal client.
Conferences for associations that want to understand how improving trust can improve their businesses are an ideal client. I speak at HR conferences, Health and Safety conferences, Associations and conferences to do with customer service. Another ideal client for me is a middle senior or leader of a midsized company. It’s someone who wants to improve their life and prove the relationships they have within the office and are open to looking at new ideas and ways to actually improve everything about the company.
5. What is your pet peeve in regards to the leadership coaching and consultant industry?
Well, I don’t know if it’s a pet peeve more than an observation. I’ve noticed that there are people who make claims that are not based in fact and they have no proof to back them up on wild claims that they have on improving leadership. I think if you are doing anything you have to be able to show through your research and facts that it can be proven. People have to be able to trust what you are telling them.
6. What personal changes have you had to make in order to build your career?
Other than having a steady paycheck? I honestly don’t feel like I had to make personal changes. Maybe because I wanted to make the changes I’ve made because I am passionately in love with what I do, it never felt like it was a change but rather a progression and desire.
7. What do you consider your biggest challenge?
I love doing what I do but that means getting out of my comfort zone and selling. People won’t know what I do if I don’t get in front of them. I would rather just jump in and do the work but finding the clients and getting them to hire me means I have to sell myself and what I do. I’m not alone in this challenge I know.
8. If you could invite any three people alive or passed on, for a dinner party, who would they be?
The three people that I would invite are Nelson Mandela, Lady Gaga, and Isadora Duncan.
9. If you could switch careers for a day what would you choose?
If I could switch careers I would be the conductor of an orchestra. Now that would have to mean that I had the skill in order to do that, which I don’t. But I would love to have that skill and ability to lead an orchestra to make beautiful music.
10. What are the most important tips you would pass on to another person just getting started as the ‘trust architect’?
Be curious. Ask questions that are hard to answer and then find a way to answer them. Have integrity. Be kind.
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