How leaders can build trust - and why they should...
Can you imagine being in a serious relationship where there is ZERO trust? No. Nor can I.
At least, not any more. Yet I've found myself in that situation personally (with my first attempt at marriage) and professionally (in my corporate career). It's a mind bender and it's deeply frustrating and disorienting.
And every day millions of people are turning up to work in jobs where they don't trust their leaders, or their team members.
Why does that matter to you as a leader? Because as a leader, you're working in partnership - with the team you're a part of (your peers) and with the team you lead (your direct reports). The relationships you have with both teams are critical to your success as a leader.
I want to focus on the team you lead... Because in this team, your impact is magnified. If your team don't believe they can trust you then leading them becomes exponentially harder.
It's especially important now, because recent history has tested leaders in unexpected ways. The never ending uncertainty and distanced working has led to some absenteeism and neglect. Let me explain...
Neglect, or absenteeism as a leader erodes your teams' trust in you. It whittles down their motivation and dials down their engagement. That's an important consideration when you're working on site together. It's a critical consideration when you're working remotely.
You may think you're not neglecting your team - or that you're not absent. I can tell you from experience that it can happen unintentionally. You can, for instance...
neglect to be clear on priorities as they emerge, or swap places with other previously important tasks or projects;
neglect to provide adequate space, time, resources or support to plan and/or deliver a project;
neglect to update the team on changes in direction, strategy or updates on company progress or changes (whether they appear to have a direct impact on the team or not);
be absent by not providing regular one to one and team touch points to regulate and adapt to workloads, external challenges, learning opportunities, updates in strategy, and changes in team membership;
be absent because you're caught up focusing on the relationships with stakeholders, more so than the relationship with your team.
If that resonates, don't feel discouraged. The good news is that changing course can be an incredibly powerful experience for you and your team. Here's why...
As a leader, you are the primary news source, guide light, sponsor, advocate and tough love champion for your team. Because you hold that role, when you deepen trust in your team, communication becomes easier, information flow more fluidly, work happens faster and seems simpler. That's in part because the conversations you and the team need to have to create ease and effectiveness in working together start to happen in ways that spread the ownership and accountability amongst the team.
The risk is that most leaders have been conditioned to think trust is a given, or a cherry on top of great performance, rather than a precursor to it. Leader's can also assume that their team will trust them by virtue of their role as a leader (their positional power). When you take that view, you're treating your team as commodities that are expendable, not humans who are valuable in their own right.
Trust restores human connection, because you only build trust by earning it.
The commercial impact of trust has - and continues to be studied, but n a world where intellectual and emotional bandwidth is stretched and the talent market is tight, the stats bear some repeating:
Trust in Managers has an engagement impact that equates to a 10% increase in remuneration;
High trust companies report 74% less stress, 106% more energy at work, 50% higher productivity, 13% fewer sick days, 76% more engagement, 29% more satisfaction with their lives, 40% less burnout.
Sounds promising right? So how do you begin?
You Begin By Building Trust
By demonstrating capability:
Competence: Demonstrate your strategic thinking by signposting the future plans for your team and encouraging them to think about what it will take to realise them. Demonstrate your Management chops, by helping them identify the roles they play in bringing those future plans to life. Step in to negotiate the resources, time, support and guidance they need to be successful.
Consistency: Manage your own workload, thoughts and emotions so you can show up with measured confidence and stability. Even without having all of the answers, you can maintain your composure and presence while you explore possibilities with the team. If we can't be confident or sure about the future, we need to be confident and sure about leadership.
And by demonstrating character:
Credibility: Close the 'say'/'do' gap. If you commit, follow through. If you can't follow through, follow up. If it matters, act like it matters and wrap up loose ends so people aren't left to guess what happened. Aim to always act with sincerity and integrity and to own and acknowledge when you slip, while committing to do better in future. Your team don't need you to be perfect, just reliable.
Connection: Demonstrate consideration, compassion and care for others - even if you don't like them. Everyone has been an outsider at some point. Everyone has a story. Everyone has value. Everyone is always in the middle of something. Everyone is also there to deliver something - so help them to do that to the best of their ability. Liking people doesn't come into it, respecting them does.
For you to be fully effective as a leader, you need your team to be fully effective, fully engaged and fully committed to their roles.
And you know from your own experience, if you don't trust someone, you'll hold back or avoid them; you won't raise concerns, seek feedback or suggest ideas. In short, you'll care and invest less. Sometimes significantly so.
PS. Yes, you can encourage your team to consider what it looks like to demonstrate competence, consistency, credibility and connection in their roles too.