Nurture Your Self-Trust to Build Trust With Others
What is trust? How do you decide when someone deserves your trust? Can you fully trust other people if you don't foster your own self-trust?
As an edupreneur, your answers to these fundamental questions are more than an existential exercise. Without trust, it's impossible to forge vital, authentic partnerships. You must establish trust to inspire students and your educational community to believe in their unique strengths.
Trusting in ourselves and in others can be a challenge. Many of us struggle with the concept of trust for a whole host of reasons. Some are related to childhood or a pattern of feeling as though we've misplaced trust. Other people have a hard time with trust issues because they've yet to unlock the key to learning how to develop self-trust.
Learn How to Build Self-Trust
We dive into the topic of trust and how it relates to educational leadership in micro-class 5 of the Educator to Edupreneur Master Class. Through the lens of researcher professor Dr. Brene Brown's work on this topic, we explore why trust is inextricably entangled in our efforts toward edupreneurship.
In Dr. Brown's book about leadership, Dare to Lead, she reveals how her years of in-depth research on concepts like shame and vulnerability are directly linked to leadership qualities like courage.
As Dr. Brown says, "The courage to be vulnerable is not about winning or losing, it's about the courage to show up when you can't predict or control the outcome."
Courageous leaders, Brown tells us in her book, are trustful. They recognize the value of interconnectedness and community and place their trust not only in the key people around them but also in their own selves. Self-trust, Dr. Brown stresses, is at the heart of effective leadership.
Educator Dynamics founder and CEO Sandi Herrera takes students on an exploration of these big ideas about trust in micro-class 5. Herrera leads students through a self-reflective look at values like creating and respecting boundaries, generosity, and accountability. Each of these topics relates directly to trust.
Mutual trust is central to building collaborative, positive school cultures where community members feel valued, respected, and heard. Teachers who feel trusted are willing to take the risks that lead to genuine change. They dig deeper, tapping into the core of what drives them in their careers.
Herrera helps educators identify ways they can develop their edupreneurial skills through self-trust and forge trustful partnerships and productive teams.
"What it all comes down to, it comes down to the cornerstone of trust," Herrera says. "How do we build and grow trust, and how do we really lean into recognizing each other's strengths and living in alignment with our values?"
Micro-class 5 of the Educator to Edupreneur Master Class helps educators break down the components of building and growing trust in a sustainable way for ourselves and those we serve.
Micro-class 5 is an integral component of the master class series, which explores qualities like trust and the importance of finding and using your unique strengths. The course will teach you how to forge your own educational leadership journey and inspire your school or broader community to greatness.
