Leadership is not about making all the decisions, as most business leaders know (or come to learn quite quickly) in running organizations and competing in the shifting sands of today's economy. In fact, while results per se are vital, we at IA teach the importance of widening the lens on results to look at three critical dimensions of success: results, process, and relationship. Leadership success is about balancing all three – as we have detailed here.

Interaction Associates is in the final stages of our annual workplace trust research, Building Trust in Business 2013. We will release this year's findings in early summer and we expect to show some interesting new trends at the intersection of trust, leadership, and collaboration.

I had the pleasure to speak at the recent 2013 Spring Conscious Capitalism conference in San Francisco, whose theme was Elevating Humanity Through Conscious Business. I continue to be impressed by the groundswell of interest and desire to participate in what is simultaneously a rising business movement, a new paradigm, a philosophy, and a non-profit organization.

How can leaders overcome the barriers to innovation and drive more good ideas to powerful implementation? That question and others are the focus of this exclusive on-demand webcast for executives, leaders and managers called "Collaboration: The Spark Plug for Innovation." It's led by Interaction Associates Senior Consultant Justin Jones, who has deep experience in applying collaborative practices in large, global organizations.

It’s been an exhilarating couple of weeks at Interaction Associates, with several important validations of our work and the issues that we track in the world.

If you're interested in developing your capacity to listen, here's an exercise you can try. Find a news or call-in program on the radio or on television with commentators who hold completely different opinions than you do and draw upon a belief system that you disagree with.

Listen to CEO Linda Stewart in conversation with Aubrey Weite of Human Capital Institute. Linda talks about employee involvement and why employee engagement is not enough.

To download your free copy of the 2012 Building Trust in Business Research Report and a free Trust Toolkit, please visit this link.

Barry Rosen and I led an engaging and practical 90-minute web event, for which you can get the slides, below..

Our annual research, Building Trust in Business 2012, yielded an important finding about how high-performing companies are focused increasingly on employee and customer relationships as a key component for driving business results.

In this brief podcast, Chief Innovation Officer Andy Atkins offers important insights into the connection between focusing on relationship and building trust -- especially for retaining key employees and valuable customers in tough times.