BUSINESS EDU
Trust, Accountability, and the Lessons of Leadership by Karen Mullett , owner Scuba Zone, Barberton, OH
T RUST IS ONE OF THE MOST valuable and most vulnerable assets in any small business. Owners rely on their staff not only to perform their jobs well, but also to represent the integrity and reputation of the organization. When that trust is honored, it builds a strong and loyal team. When it is broken, however, the consequences can be deeply personal and professionally damaging. For many years, my late husband and his business partner believed strongly in trusting their employees. They built the business culture around respect, loyalty, and the assumption that those who worked with them shared the same commitment to the success of the company. Because of that philosophy, they never required staff to sign non-compete agreements or similar protections. It simply didn’t feel necessary. The team felt like family, and the idea that someone might intentionally undermine the business seemed unlikely.
Unfortunately, experience eventually taught us a difficult lesson. During our time in one specific location, we discovered that one of our most trusted instructors had been secretly undermining the business. This individual, someone we believed to be hardworking and loyal, had begun poaching customers from our store. Students who initially enrolled in classes through us were being redirected to continue their training privately with him. At the same time, he was selling them equipment independently through manufacturers who were supplying him directly. The situation escalated even further. In one particularly shocking instance, he contacted a manufacturer of ours and claimed that he was in the process of purchasing our business. He requested that they create a new account under the name of his own store – using the same physical address as ours.
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