Dean Dirks delves into his research and his vision for the Eccles School in Q&A with Utah Business
In order to introduce himself to the local business community en masse, new David Eccles School of Business Dean Kurt Dirks sat down with Utah Business editor-in-chief Melanie Jones for a Q&A session.
In their nearly hourlong conversation, they discussed myriad topics, but primarily focused on his research on trust, the risk to organizations of losing it, and how people in leadership positions can foster it. They also touched on what Dirks has observed since starting at the Eccles School and how he envisions its future.
A highlight from the trust portion of the conversation:
MJ: How can business leaders measure and enhance trust within their organizations?
KD: We think about building trust at three levels. One is at the individual level — things about me that make you trust me. The second is a relationship, which is a kind of communication that builds rapport with different people, and that’s now at the dyadic, interpersonal level. And then the last is building a set of structures and culture around it. We think about three things that people look for when they trust someone, particularly a leader. To make it easy, we will talk about three Cs . One is competence. The second is character — am I honest? And the last one is caring: “It’s not about me; I’m taking your interest into account.”
Our brains seem to be wired to look at differences between when people violate something because of a lack of competence or a lack of chara cter. Our brains seem to be less forgiving of character flaws than of skill-related errors.
And about his time at the U:
MJ: Finally, what is your vision for the [Eccles School] moving forward?
KD: Student success is our North Star. [It’s the] notion of helping everyone, no matter where you come from — rural Utah, urban Utah or even out of the state. How can we be a place where students come knowing that they can find what they care about — their purpose — and then seek and find that peak? We measure that through graduation rate, career outcomes, the confidence that they leave with, and being able to have an impact.
