If 'Trust' is so critical to business success, why do so many managers ignore it?

This week I was again reminded how few managers really pay attention to engendering Trust on their teams and in their organizations.  Two separate managers recently lamented their struggles with team members - and high performing ones at that.  Establishing trust usually takes a long time, yet is destroyed in nearly an instant.  And this subject is neither new nor elementary in its complexity.  Since Leadership is above all a relationship (as asserted by influential authors James Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner in their book "Credibility"), all managers work in the heat of an invisible spotlight where their every word and deed are scrutinized by employees (as Doug Katz and Craig Wasserman articulate in "The Invisible Spotlight"), and trust is the cornerstone of effective team member/business relationships (as discussed by Stephen M. R. Covey in "The Speed of Trust"), I couldn't help but be a little surprised that these smart managers (or anyone else) weren't looking there first in diagnosing what may be ailing their key relationships?

As I listened, it became apparent that there was no introspection by either manager.  Everything that was 'wrong' was 'clearly' the other person's fault.  Both managers are no slouches and were dealing with high performance team members, too.  You would expect that those relationships would be the perfect ones to invest even a little introspection, however uncustomary the behavior might be for them.  That did not appear the case, so I helped facilitate that process with them.  They became some great conversations in the process.

I won't get into the details of how each of them undermined the relationship, but let's just say that it does not take a rocket scientist to realize that speaking condescendingly or limiting close contact interactions will do little to enhance one's relationships.  Please pay attention to the trust 'deposits' you make in your relationships, even the ones that are troubled.  Business (and relationship) success is hard enough to achieve.  Let's not make that even more difficult by not giving the understanding and development of 'Trust' sufficient time and attention.