The agenda generally inspires the greatest trust is seeking mutual benefit — genuinely wanting what’s best for everyone involved. It’s not just that you care about others; you also genuinely want them to win. Yes, you’re seeing a win for yourself; that’s natural, desirable, and to be expected. But you’re also seeking a win for all others involved. You recognize that life is interdependent, so you seek out solutions that build trust and benefit all.
The opposite of a mutual benefit agenda is a self-serving agenda: “I want to win — period.” If that’s your agenda, you might get results. But you need to ask yourself: Are these the best possible results I could be getting? And: Are these results sustainable over time? The answer to both of these questions is “no.”
Instead of building bridges of credibility and trust, you’re creating roadblocks of suspicion and distrust.
Stephen Covey
From a teaching standpoint, this is what you want. When it comes to teaching test preparation courses, that mutual benefit is vastly important. You have to not only brag about it to peers, but also workmates and the CEO, telling them “look what I made my student achieve?” Of course, the shoulder shrugs always happen, but once a student doesn’t achieve the score, the world falls on you.
That’s basically someone with a hidden agenda. Winners period? Politicians, obviously. Look at America’s 260-year history of presidency. It was all about “them” and never about “the people.” Thailand…most people set up karaoke bars (which are brothels) and other forms of business to get quick money. That only creates suspicion and distrust. I can pick out those types of characters from a mile away.
For those who actually commit these crimes against people, you will pay an extremely high task…which is often imprisonment, exile or other forms of governmental backlash.
Behavior
- Only 29% of employees believe that management cares about them developing their skills.
- Only 42% believe that management cares about them at all.
An appalling statistics. I worked for a language center called New Education World, and for three years, there were only two workshops, both being held by pompous know-it-all Gen B’s that were the worst possible definition of a teacher trainer. I remember the first one was held in 2015, and there was a cancerous human being named Paul who took leadership of it. For one hour, he didn’t establish ANY sort of skill, insight or revelation that we could take with us home that evening. He literally talked bad about the students and talked about scanning, a technique that could be picked up easily in books.
In the next workshop, a guy from Alabama taught us about SAT, and again, another completely misguided workshop that didn’t make any sense, nor did it help teachers gain knowledge and position themselves to start teaching these particular subjects.
I had to learn on my own. More importantly, I got extremely lucky working at a very-tense language center last year (for a couple months), and while I was there, I was able to ask several teachers the ins and outs of specific things (which I do believe I’ve already forgotten).
I learned more in those two months than I learned in 3.5 years at my previous job.
As a manager or anyone of power, you need to learn how to train your employees and especially treat them.
A wonderful company that I teach at in the heart of the CBD informed me that they will be going on a trip to Japan (Hokkaido) in a couple of weeks. All paid for by the company….and get this, no meetings or anything. A pure holiday.
That’s how team-building works. I’m not saying send your employees overseas, but show them that you do care about the development of their skills.
Actionable Steps
- As an employee, what skills can you further develop to put you in a greater position in the next few months?
- As an employer, what can you implement now that will better your employees and benefit them going ahead in the future?
Podcast
Listen to “Stephen Covey’s Speed of Trust: Season 4 – Episode 13 – Agenda & Behavior” on Spreaker.https://widget.spreaker.com/widgets.js
Arsenio's ESL Podcast 
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