I think Simon Sinek's TED talk suggesting that a great leader is someone who makes their employees feel secure and draws staffers into a circle of trust is spot on. I think in order for employees, in order to be the most productive and showing up at 100% in your work it is important that you have a strong leader who will help you feel secure and that there is trust in the co-working relationship. I have had horrible "leaders" as well as amazing leaders and the difference is night and day! Strategies such as showing you care and that you can provide a safe space for your employees when and if they need to come to you with any issues is highly important in the workplace. Sinek approaches this topic about the type of environment people work in and how much of an impact it has on the work we do, and how much we care and show up for this work. If someone feels underappreciated, unseen, or disrespected in any relationship, a lot of people wouldn't tolerate this kind of behavior from a friend or loved one. I don't see how a professional relationship should be any different. I think race plays into leaders creating circles of trust for their employees in many different ways in the workplace. When a person is coming from a place where their whole life they have been dealing with racism and discrimination there is going to be a lot of trust issues around other people just in general. This can be seen in the workplace as well. The workplace environment is one where a lot of people experience racism and sexism. In the workplace, you can see the discrimination and mistreatment and unequal treatment, and unequal opportunities that the difference races experience in statistics that are taken from people's jobs. As a leader, it is very important to be antiracist and to not support any type of policies or work rules that would lead to discrimination or racism in the workplace. It is important that your employees feel comfortable and safe to come to you with any issues, especially regarding racism and discrimination. As a leader in a workplace, you are the first communication line for an employee to have in order to solve issues. You must have proper communication techniques and leadership skills in order to help your employees in any manner. If the employees do not trust their leaders, then the workplace environment is going to be hostile not only with that leader but also with one another. This will make productivity go down. When you have a toxic work environment this is when you will have higher turnover rates, and no one is benefiting for higher turnover rates. In my experience with leaders who weren't the greatest, those are the times we had the highest turnover rates with our employees, and it was not a fun place to work for anyone. It is now a lot better of a place and for the most part we all get along.