"Hold in Trust®": An Exercise of the Integrated Work of Leadership©

Hold in Trust® is one of the many exercises in the Integrated Work of Leadership© Workbook. This workbook is a resource intended to help you identify and affirm your strengths and acquire the necessary tools and resources that will enhance and strengthen your capacity to lead.

There are dozens of models about dealing with change, but none can be effective without capable leaders who are in touch with who they are at their core. The personhood of the leader is a critical component at all levels. The capacity to see the individual, within an organization, within a community, is the ability to simultaneously see the whole and the parts.

Hold in Trust® Overview

Hold in Trust® involves being responsible for something (or someone) we don't posess, own, or over whom we do not have control. It is knowing that, when our responsibility is completed, we will have contributed to improving the health and functioning of individuals, organizations, and communities, and enhancing the lives and conditions for those we may never know in a time we may never see.

Integrated leaders hold individuals, organizations, and communities in trust. They understand what this means at a personal and profound level and are able to take what they gained from being held in trust and pass it own to others.

Trust holding is a generative process; a continuous cycle of giving that becomes transcendent of the giver. Being held in trust shapes and forms our character, relationships, and actions. The Integrated Work of Leadership© invokes examining your particular experience of being held in trust and what it meant in your life. We now invite you to explore and contemplate what it means to "Hold in Trust®".

Hold in Trust® Process

1. Brainstorm and record words and images related to Hold in Trust®

When I hear the phrase "Hold in Trust®," these words, phrases, images come to mind on a blank piece of paper. Below you'll find some of the responses we have received from other participans in the Integrated Work of Leadership© Workbook. 

2. Self-reflection

Looking at the words, images, and phrases you've created, reflect on the following questions

1. As you look at everything, think of a time when you felt you were held in trust. It could be a time when you were a child, an adolescent, or an adult. The experience might have been with a parent, teacher, friend, colleague, etc.
2. Who was the person? What did they do? What was the effect on you?
3. What are the characteristics and qualities of the person who held you in trust?

3. Record responses

Answer the following questions on another piece of paper.

1. Who has held me in trust?
2. What did they do?
3. List the qualities this inividual posssessed
4. List and describe the effect on me.

4. Sharing and reflection

1. Share your responses in a small group of your colleagues.
2. What words, phrases, or images do you want to add now to your responses to the Hold in Trust®? Write these additions in a different color pen if possible.
3. What do you notice as you look at your Hold in Trust® worksheet.Take a few minutes to reflect and write down your thoughts.
4. We also invite you to write a letter to the individuals who held you in trust expressing what they meant to you and the influence their trust holding had on you. This expression of gratitue is a way to keep the cycle of giving moving, and the gift you have been given becomes part of a generative process of giving to other. This is central to your sense of trusteeship.
   • How do you want to express your gratitude for your experience of being heald in trust? (Call the person, write a letter, honor someone, etc....)
   • How can I ensure that the gift of being held in trust will be passed on to others?

Hold in Trust® is a registered trademark of Trustee Leadership Develement, author, Katherine Tyler Scott.

Questions about Hold in Trust®?

Contact us and we'd be happy to provide you with more information and additional resources.