It essentially means being able to provide employees with most enjoyable and fulfilling working environment as possible and balancing this with their home and personal life. This may sound simple enough to achieve, but upon more scrutiny, it actually requires a dedicated effort on part of leadership to establish proper criteria.

We are currently working with several clients to identify and implement required elements to achieve this "Employer of Choice" status. It is indeed more than just a buzzword; it is representative of a whole new design of corporate culture. It means that people will choose to work for you. It means that people will choose to really dedicate themselves to your success. It means that people will choose to stay with you, even when they are being courted by recruiters from other employers.

A recent report, titled "The War for Talent" stated that over next 20 years, employee talent will be what differentiates successful companies and those going bust. Will your organization be ready?

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To develop a high level of trust, you need to be honest, straight forward, and act with integrity. People must have faith that you will always do right thing, not safe or easy thing. A leader must act in unselfish ways, caring about others before their own interests. Additionally, a leader must encourage innovation and risk, without fear of being reprimanded or fired. Through innovation and creative ideas, company members will begin to explore new ways to be more productive and work together more as a team.

As you develop this level of trust, you will find that your team will begin to view you as a leader, as opposed to “one who can fire me.” You will sense of lessening of friction, because your team knows where you stand and how you feel. Your team will know that there is no such thing as a “dumb idea” and that you welcome creativity and progress.

To be a more effective leader, you need to lubricate yourself and your team with magic “oil” of trust. Unlike that for you car or lawn mower, this oil doesn’t cost you anything but time, discipline, and dedication.