How to Build Trust In Leadership And Reduce Burnout – Alain Hunkins for Forbes speaks to ISHOF Chariman and Horner CEO Dr. Bill Kent
Contributor. Alain Hunkins writes about leadership strategy that you can apply.
Most CEOs talk about company culture, but few truly build trust in leadership. Dr. Bill Kent built a company culture so strong that it won a national award from the American Psychological Association (APA).
At Team Horner, a $350 million employee-owned pool-supply company in Florida, culture isn’t a slogan in an Annual Report. Culture lives and breathes in daily experience. From on-site fitness classes to a wellness committee made up entirely of frontline staff and a quiet room for decompressing, at Team Horner, these aren’t perks, they’re signs of a company that truly cares. That commitment earned Team Horner the APA’s Psychologically Healthy Workplace award, placing it in the same conversation as American Express.
For Kent, CEO of Team Horner since 1972, and now in his eighties, wellness isn’t a checkbox: It’s about performance. “If employees are energized about coming to work, they’ll give their best,” he says.
When Culture Starts with Quiet Rooms
Long before ‘well-being’ and ‘wellness’ became HR buzzwords, Kent’s team launched Color Me Healthy, an initiative born from the bottom-up. Team Horner convened its first well-being committee that had only one rule: No managers allowed. The committee’s first request? A quiet room where employees could step away from stress. Kent didn’t overthink it: he approved the space immediately. That humble beginning sparked a broader culture shift. Today, Team Horner invests roughly $300,000–$400,000 annually in wellness, including gyms, personal trainers, and even scholarships for employees’ children.
While such perks sound great, it turns out that wellness alone doesn’t create a psychologically healthy workplace. It takes trust. At Team Horner, that trust was built on Kent’s decades-long practice of treating employees as partners in success.
When Shared Fate Drives Trust and Resilience
Kent took on the top job at Team Horner over fifty years ago. From the start, he believed partnership had to be more than a slogan. “Profit-sharing started in the 1970s. The Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP) came in 2016,” he said. That shared ownership mindset became the backbone of the company’s culture, and the reason it survived when times got tough.
When the 2008 recession hit, Team Horner was already feeling the impact of the broader economic downturn. Between 2006 and 2008, headcount had dropped from roughly 400 to 290 employees, a level Kent described as the company’s “point of dysfunctionality.” Even after those painful cuts, the business was still losing close to $2 million a year. With survival on the line, Kent made the hardest decision of his career: a company-wide wage reduction.
“It directly impacted the lives of all our teammates and their families,” he recalls. “But not doing it would have endangered the company’s future.”
What happened next spoke volumes about the trust Kent had built. Instead of anger, employees responded with understanding and even gratitude. They knew the reasoning, the numbers, and the stakes. That shared transparency turned a moment of crisis into a moment of cohesion, setting the foundation for Team Horner’s recovery and long-term success.
This Isn’t Just Feel-Good: It’s Smart Business
Science backs Kent’s instincts. A landmark study from MIT Sloan tracked nearly one million U.S. Army soldiers over five years. Those with the highest well-being (happy, resilient, optimistic) earned significantly more performance awards than others. Well-being, the research concluded, predicts high performance.
Johnson & Johnson quantified the return of well-being: $250 million saved in healthcare costs between 2002 and 2008, with a staggering $2.71 back for every dollar spent on wellness programs. Meanwhile, a June 2025 Harvard Business Review analysis found that employees experiencing high stress file 2.5 times more health claims than their less-stressed peers. Mental health isn’t an HR problem. It’s a financial one.
On a global scale, the cost of burnout is staggering. Another HBR study found that 12 billion workdays are lost annually due to depression and anxiety. Deloitte’s Women @ Work 2025 report paints an equally sobering picture. Over one-third of women (36%) say their stress levels are higher than a year ago, and just over half (51%) rate their mental health as good or extremely good. Yet only 43% feel they receive adequate mental health support from their employer, and nearly 90% believe their manager would think negatively of them if they disclosed mental health challenges. Gallup estimates lost productivity from disengagement and stress at nearly $8.8 trillion globally each year. The math is clear: ignoring well-being erodes both morale and the bottom line.
At Team Horner, their investment in well-being has paid off in more than goodwill. Internal engagement surveys show higher satisfaction and lower turnover than industry averages, and leaders report fewer stress-related absences than a decade ago. This results in a culture that not only builds trust, but actively buffers against burnout.
Avoiding “Wellness Theater” Builds Trust in Leadership
Despite these truths, many programs miss the mark. HBR has warned that workplace wellness often fails when it’s superficial, tokenistic, or devoid of authentic leadership support. A mindfulness voucher or a health webinar can feel hollow if not grounded in a culture of psychological safety.
This is where Team Horner stands apart. Their wellness culture wasn’t tacked on. It was woven in. The wellness committee was employee-led. The quiet room came from a genuine request. Profit-sharing and ownership weren’t symbolic, but built together over decades. Kent’s leadership wasn’t performative. It was real.
A Playbook for Building Trust in Leadership
Kent’s story offers a practical roadmap for executives who want to embed well-being, not as a perk, but as part of performance infrastructure.
Ask employees first.Get input directly from employees before designing solutions. Team Horner’s wellness journey began with one small question: What would help you manage stress at work? The quiet room that resulted became a cultural catalyst. Leaders often assume they know what employees need. The real power lies in asking, listening, and acting quickly on small, concrete requests.
Invest with intention.Treat wellness as essential infrastructure, not a discretionary expense. Team Horner allocates roughly $300,000–$400,000 a year to initiatives ranging from on-site fitness to scholarships for employees’ children. That consistency signals seriousness. Research from McKinsey shows that well-being investments that are visible, sustained, and integrated into strategy tend to improve productivity, retain talent, reduce absenteeism, and strengthen employee engagement over time.
Align incentives.Culture gains traction when people share in the upside. Team Horner’s profit-sharing plan and ESOP ownership structure give every employee a stake in results. Ownership creates accountability and pride, two forces that reinforce trust far more effectively than slogans. “When people think like owners, they act like owners,” Kent says. “That’s when culture starts to sustain itself.”
Crunch the numbers.Well-being has a measurable ROI. Multiple studies consistently link lower stress to higher engagement, retention, and profitability. Leaders should track key indicators, such as turnover, absenteeism, and health claims the same way they track revenue and margin. Those metrics are the financials of culture. As Kent puts it, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure. If you believe people are your greatest asset, start treating their well-being like one.”
Lead authentically.Employees see through “wellness theater.” Programs succeed only when leaders model the behaviors they promote, such as taking time off, setting boundaries, and showing up with empathy. Kent’s decades-long commitment wasn’t performative; it was personal. His consistency built credibility, and that credibility built trust. To build trust in leadership long term, consistency matters more than slogans.
Start Simple
When asked, “If you could give on piece of advice to any leader who wants to create a psychologically heathy workplace, what would it be?” Kent’s response was as profound as it was simple: “Talk to your employees and ask how it feels to work here. That’s always the first step.”
The APA award validated Team Horner’s cultural investment. More meaningful, though, is the loyalty, energy, and resilience they’ve built. In a world where burnout and disengagement are less the exception than the norm, Kent’s story is a powerful reminder: Taking care of your people isn’t just kind. It’s smart. It’s how trust in leadership gets built.
Is swimming more popular than we think?
If you ask a random person on the street what the most popular sport is, the answer might depend on your location. In the United States, the answer might be football or baseball, in Australia, the answer might also be football, which is a completely different sport than our football, it’s what we in the U.S. call soccer. In India, it might be cricket. But would any country name swimming?
I started thinking about that the other night when I was watching a very famous movie, a true classic that I had never seen before, “National Velvet” starring a beautiful, 12-year old, Elizabeth Taylor, in her very first acting role, considered her breakout performance. Also starring Mickey Rooney, Angela Lansbury and Anne Revere as Elizabeth’s mother, Mrs. Brown. I had, of course heard about the movie “National Velvet,” my whole life, as a 62 year old woman. I knew it was a story about a girl and her horse. It won two Oscars in 1945.
“When Velvet Brown (Elizabeth Taylor), an equine-loving 12-year-old living in rural Sussex, becomes the owner of a rambunctious horse, she decides to train it for England’s Grand National race. Aided by former jockey Mi Taylor (Mickey Rooney) and encouraged by her family, the determined Velvet gets her steed, affectionately called “The Pie,” ready for the big day. However, a last-minute problem arises with the jockey and an unexpected rider must step in as a replacement.”
While watching the movie last night, I was excited when it was revealed that was that Velvet’s Mother (Anne Revere) was a champion swimmer, becoming the first woman to swim the English Channel, winning a hundred golden sovereigns. This becomes key to the story as Velvet needs it for the entry fee to compete in the Grand National Horse Race.
After watching “National Velvet, it made me think of other movies and even TV shows that were NOT about swimming or other aquatic sports yet somehow, swimming found its way into the story. What about “Back to School” with Rodney Dangerfield? Nothing more classic than his diving scene and the “Triple Lindy” in that movie! We even had the clip in the Hall of Fame Museum. I know, I’m showing my age.
Okay, back to the present, what about the popular TV Show, “Never Have I Ever?” The heartthrob of this hit show, is Paxton Hall-Yoshida, a popular, athletic 16-year-old high school student, who is the captain of the high school swim team, but has to give it up after a car accident. After graduating, he attends Arizona State University, but later becomes an assistant swim coach at the high school upon deciding university is not for him.
There’s more: “The Big C”, “Pretty Little Liars”, “Star Crossed”, “The Thirteenth Year’ and many more……
What about you? Can you name a movie or TV Show, that you love, that has swimming or any of the aquatic sports in it, but swimming isn’t the theme of the movir of TV Show??
Maybe, swimming IS more popular than we think!!!!!!
Tell us in the comments a movie or TV Show that has swimming in it!
Happy (Official) Columbus Day!!
Photo Credit Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images
Article by: British Swim School
October 13 is the official anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas.
And this day would not have happened if Columbus had not known how to swim…
Columbus went to sea when he was about 10 but the first voyage he made into the Atlantic Ocean was in 1476 when he was 25 years old. The ship he was on was attacked by French privateers who set the ship on fire. Columbus escaped by jumping overboard and swimming to the coast of Portugal. Privateers were sailors whose government gave them permission to attack merchant ships, sort of like pirates but acting with the okay of their government. Having gotten safely to Portugal, Columbus settled there and married a Portuguese woman. However, when he suggested the idea of sailing west to find a route to the East Indies, the Portuguese king and queen were not impressed. Neither were the rulers in Genoa or Venice. Finally, he was able to persuade the king and queen of Spain to give him the money to buy three ships. And the rest is history….
But to get back to the swimming. Some people in the 1400’s could, and did, swim but many did not including many sailors. Columbus had grown up by the sea so he probably had plenty of opportunities to learn how to swim and he must have been a strong swimmer. The distance from his ship to the shore must have been daunting.
So if Columbus had not known how to swim, October 12 would be just another day.We hope you never have to jump off a burning ship but knowing how to swim can be life saving even if you are not under attack by privateers. Who knows what events might be possible if you learn how to swim?
Say what you want about Christopher Columbus, but at least he knew how to swim.
FLASH! Gretchen Walsh Destroys World Record in 50 Butterfly
by John Lohn – Editor-in-Chief
11 October 2025
Wasn’t it simply a matter of time? Given her prowess as the finest female short-course swimmer in history, a world record from Gretchen Walsh seemed likely during the first stop of the World Cup circuit in Carmel, Indiana. Saturday night turned out to be right moment for such an effort, as Walsh destroyed her own global standard in the 50-meter butterfly.
Clocking a time of 23.72, Walsh sliced .22 off her previous world record, which was set at last year’s World Short Course Championships in Budapest. Walsh shot to the front of the field off the start and was in the lead at the 25-meter mark, thanks to a split of 10.95. She continued to build on her advantage on the return lap, which she covered in 12.77. Walsh finished nearly a second ahead of Aussie Alexandria Perkins, the runnerup in 24.64.
Walsh now owns the seven-fastest times in event history, including the only two sub-24 efforts. During prelims, Walsh set a World Cup record of 24.11 and provided a sense that a world record was within reach at night. To put Walsh’s world record in perspective, the effort would have been good for third place in the 50 freestyle on the opening night of the meet.
In the short-course pool, Walsh now owns world records in the 50 freestyle, 50 butterfly, 100 butterfly and 100 individual medley.
‘Iron Will’ An Inspiring Memoir by Paralympian Roderick Sewell
by Dan D’Addona — Swimming World Managing Editor
‘Iron Will’ An Inspiring Memoir by Paralympian Roderick Sewell
Journeys are meant to inspire, and few swimmers have been as inspiring as Roderick Sewell II.
The Paralympic swimmer was a Pan American Games medalist for Team USA and a three-time national team member.
But his story is much more than the water.
Sewell, with the help of his mother and grandmother, overcame a very tough childhood. Having both legs amputated at the age of 2 led to medical bills and a dire financial situation.
But he and his mother Marian never gave up.
Sewell became the first double amputee to finish an Iron Man competition and he continues to coach and speak about his journey.
He was still homeless in Alabama when he met coaches from the Challenged Athletes Foundation, which helps athletes with disabilities. They gave him his running legs, and his life quickly changed for the better. He learned how to swim, how to challenge his body, and how to be a fierce competitor and athlete—all with him mom cheering from the sidelines.
Now, he has put his journey to words with a memoir: “Iron Will: An Amputee’s Journey to Athletic Excellence.” The book was released earlier this year by Legacy Lit.
This is a tremendous book that balances the heavy parts of life with a lighter writing style that makes for an easy but inspiring read.
Sewell discusses his family upbringing, struggles as an amputee and how he was able to use swimming to find his place in the athletic world.
This is a must read not just for swimmers, but to anyone ready to be inspired.
It is available on Amazon , Barnes & Noble, and other book retailers.
World Aquatics Releases 2026 Diving Recognized Events Schedule
Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Perottino / Deepbluemedia / Insidefot
by Matthew De George – Senior Writer
World Aquatics Releases 2026 Diving Recognized Events Schedule
World Aquatics this week announced its 2026 diving recognized events, which builds on its World Cup slate.
The events next year will, “enable more National Federations to access diving events” in the effort to expand the sport globally. It is an add-on t the World Cup schedule, which in 2026 will visit Montreal, Guadalajara and Beijing.
The events announced in this release are part of what was formerly known as the FINA Diving Grand Prix from 1995-2022.
The events include:
AGB Diving International, Jan. 30-Feb. 1, Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Sheffield, England
Southern Cross Diving Series, Feb. 13-15, Gold Coast Aquatic Centre, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
Canada Cup of Diving, April 9-12, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
American Cup, April 16-19, location TBD
Madrid International Diving Meet, Jun 12-14, Madrid, Spain
Bolzano Diving Meeting Alto Adige-Sud Tirol, July 3-5, Bolzano, Italy
Malaysia Open Diving Championships, Oct. 30-Nov. 1, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Southern Cross Diving Series, Dec. 10-13, Christchurch, New Zealand
“We are delighted to have secured our biggest ever calendar of World Aquatics Diving Recognized Events for 2026,” said World Aquatics Diving Technical Committee chairperson Bashar Al-Saffar in a press release. “This is a testament to the growing global strength of our sport, as was demonstrated at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore. The World Aquatics Diving Recognized Events help to develop the future stars in the sport, and we are looking forward to watching talented athletes perform around the world next year.”
Every Child A Swimmer Committee Member, Stathis Avramidis, PhD has published a new book: “Panagiotis Nastos”
ISHOF’s Every Child A Swimmer committee member, Stathis Avramidis, who is also, the President of Greek Lifesaving, has just released a new book, entitled “Panagiotis Nastos”.
After 9 years of searching, the Greek Lifesaving Sports Association proudly presents the book “Panagiotis Nastos” about the work of the “father” of swimming and a pioneer of rescue and lifesaving sport in Greece.
“A great splash in the Greek swimming history.” Dr Bill Kent, Chairman, International Swimming Hall of Fame
“A wonderful flashback on Greece’s history of swimming and lifesaving sport.“Dr Harald Vervaecke, Secretary General, International Life Saving Federation.
“A wonderful read for everyone interested in the history of swimming and in keeping people safe” Steven Munatones, Co-Founder, World Open Water Swimming Foundation
Caeleb Dressel Shifting Training Location; Reuniting with Coach Steve Jungbluth at Sporting JAX Aquatic Club
by John Lohn – Editor-in-Chief
02 October 2025
Caeleb Dressel Reuniting with Coach Steve Jungbluth at Sporting JAX Aquatic Club
Caeleb Dressel, the three-time Olympian and nine-time Olympic gold medalist, is reuniting with one of the coaches he worked with at the University of Florida. In a press release on Thursday, it was revealed that Dressel will join the Sporting JAX Aquatic Club and train under Steve Jungbluth. Dressel and Jungbluth worked together when Dressel established NCAA records as a standout at the University of Florida. Jungbluth and Florida parted ways in 2022.
“I’m incredibly excited to begin this next chapter with Sporting JAX,” said Dressel in the press release. “Northeast Florida was where I grew up, and being able to train here with Steve as we prepare for Los Angeles is truly special. I’m grateful for the opportunity to work alongside this club’s athletes and families and to share my passion for swimming with the next generation.”
Dressel has won 10 Olympic medals during his career and has identified representing the United States at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles as a goal. Dressel has indicated a desire to focus on the 50 freestyle and 50 butterfly at this point in his career, with the 50 fly being added to the Olympic program for LA28. Time will tell if Dressel continues to race the 100 freestyle and 100 butterfly.
The 29-year-old Dressel is the world-record holder in the 100 butterfly and won three individual gold medals at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. At the Paris Games, Dressel added three relay medals, including two gold.
“Caeleb’s return to Northeast Florida is a moment of pride for our entire community,” Jungbluth said. “Sporting JAX is committed to supporting Caeleb in his drive towards world class excellence as he prepares for the 2028 Games. Additionally, his presence will enhance the overall competitiveness of the Sporting JAX Aquatic Club and elevate the level of excellence across our programs. Beyond the pool, Caeleb will bolster Jacksonville’s standing as a premier sports community, inspiring athletes throughout the region to push harder and aim higher.”
In honor of Filipino American History month, we salute Victoria Manalo Draves
Vicki Draves was inducted into ISHOF in 1969, as an Honor Diver. The two-time Olympic gold medalist, was a familiar face around ISHOF, although she and her husband Lyle, who was also inducted into ISHOF in later years as a coach, lived in California. VIcki and Lyle attended may Honoree Inductions and ISHOF International Diving Meets. Her twin sister, Connie, lived in Fort Lauderdale and was a Hall of Fame Dame from the beginning years of ISHOF.
Manalo Draves was raised in San Francisco’s working-class district by an English mother and Filipino father at a time when mixed-race marriages ranged from frowned upon to illegal. She dreamed of becoming a ballet dancer, but with her family unable to afford training, she settled on practicing handstands and cartwheels on her own. She learned to swim when she was 10 years old, taking lessons at the nickel baths in the Mission District, and 16 when she began diving.
Prior to the U.S. entry into World War II, prejudice against Asian Americans of any ethnicity made it difficult to train. If she was allowed to practice in any public pools, the operators often drained the pool afterward. The surname Manalo made her Filipino heritage obvious, shutting her out of the Fairmont Hotel Swimming and Diving Club despite her natural talent. The club’s coach, Phil Patterson, saw her potential and formed the Patterson School of Swimming and Diving just for her. On his advice, she reluctantly agreed to use her mother’s maiden name, Taylor, in competitions.
VICTORIA “VICKI” MANALO DRAVES (USA)
1969 Honor Diver
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1948 gold (springboard; platform); NATIONAL DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1946, 1947, 1948 gold (platform); 1948 gold (springboard); First woman in Olympic to win both springboard and platform diving crowns in same games.
Victoria Manalo Draves was the first woman in Olympic history to win both springboard and platform diving crowns in the same games. She was the only swimmer or diver to gold medal in two individual events at the 1948 London Olympiad. Her rise to No. 1 in the world was meteoric but far from easy. Vicki was a twin born in San Francisco to an English mother and Filipino father. When Vicki was 16, she and her sisters would take the trolley car to Fleishhacker Pool to swim and admire the divers. Admiration was mutual as one of the boy divers introduced her to Phil Patterson, coach of then national champion Helen Crlenkovich. Vicki learned rapidly under Phil, but her biggest hurdle was not on the diving board. Her diving club on Nob Hill required that she drop her father’s Filipino name and take her mother’s maiden name, Taylor. Finances were another problem and a year later, she joined Charlie Sava’s famed Crystal Plunge team where she worked with Jimmy McHugh. McHugh left coaching and on Sava’s advice, Vicki crossed the bay to dive with Lyle Draves and his star pupil Zoe Ann Olsen at the Athens Club in Oakland.
With a third diver, Gloria Wooden, Draves took his girls to the 1945 Indoor Nationals in Chicago and they placed 1, 2, 3 in the 3 meter springboard.
Wartime duties, another Nob Hill meet argument over Vicki’s Filipino parentage, and Draves returning to Southern California left Vickie once more without a coach. There followed some commuting to Los Angeles, a second and a third at the Outdoor Nationals, and then, on the death of her father, Vicki retired and returned to San Francisco and to her old job as a secretary in the Army Port Surgeon’s office.
When the war ended, Vicki finally moved to Southern California for good. She married her coach and her winning ways began immediately with the national Tower Diving Championship (10 meter platform), in 1946, 1947 and 1948. In 1948, she won her first springboard national title. She made the team but was not first at the Olympic Trials in either springboard or platform. She was the first woman of oriental ancestry to win an Olympic gold medal in diving. The first man was Korean-American Sammy Lee, who, like Vicki, stands 5’1″ when he stretches. The incredible performances of these two Asian-Americans helped heal the scars of an Olympic-canceling World War, and personified the Olympic revival of individual competition regardless of race, creed or national origin.
Every Child a Swimmer: Creating a Generation of Swimmers
Drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages 1–4, yet it is entirely preventable. Every Child a Swimmer (ECAS) is committed to changing that. Our mission is simple but powerful: to ensure that every child, regardless of financial means, has access to life-saving swim lessons and water safety education.
Through our learn-to-swim scholarship program, we provide 12–20 professional lessons in small class sizes, ensuring measurable progress with every session. These lessons don’t just teach the basics of swimming, they build confidence, instill lifelong safety skills, and create a ripple effect that protects entire families and communities. In 2024 alone, ECAS awarded more than $587,000 in scholarships, giving 2,135 children the skills to survive and thrive in the water. We also work closely with caregivers to stress the importance of continued swim education, and many of our partner schools provide free swim time to scholarship recipients so they can strengthen their skills in a safe environment.
But our impact doesn’t stop at the pool. ECAS is also driving change through legislation. We have successfully passed water safety education laws in Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, New Mexico, and Arizona—with New York and California currently awaiting gubernatorial signatures. These laws require schools to share vital water safety information with parents and connect families to local swim resources—helping us reach more communities than ever before. Together, we are creating a generation of swimmers, ensuring that children grow up not just near the water, but safe around it.
How You Can Get Involved
Everyone can play a part in saving lives:
Be an Ambassador: Share the ECAS mission with your network.
Host a Fundraiser: From 5Ks and golf outings to movie nights, your creativity fuels our mission.
Spread Awareness: Start the conversation—because you never know when it could save a life.
Sponsor a Child:
Together, we can make sure that until every child can swim, our mission isn’t finished.
Learn more at everychildaswimmer.orgFollow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn @Every Child a Swimmer