Didn’t We Learn “Trust, But Verify?”
With trust everything flows between people! Leaders don’t have to question the motives of their team members; team members don’t have to question the integrity of what their leaders are asking of them; colleagues don’t have to wonder if the other person is trying to gain an advantage with their shared boss; customers don’t have to wonder if they get the best value for their investment… You get the idea.… but you wonder if I am naïve? Please keep reading.
“We’re paying the highest tribute you can pay a man. We trust him to do right. It’s that simple.” Harper Lee
You may wonder what the cost of trust may be if we get screwed? What if we are taken advantage of? You are absolutely right! Yet consider this: What is the cost of not trusting? Would our efforts to curb being taken advantage of lead to creativity stifling bureaucracy? Would distrust make people feel constantly questioned and inferior? You are about to understand the biggest dilemma of “The Fiddler on the Roof.” What if….? …Well...
“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” Ernest Hemingway
If we get screwed, we do not make that experience the guiding principle in all future encounters and decisions. Unfortunately, there may be people who will take advantage of us, yet our success is far greater when we can overcome the initial disappointment.
Bill is working for a large corporation that has local centers in different states. With competition in that industry getting tougher, Bill’s company decided to centralize more and more decisions. They further decided to give less authority for spending decisions to Bill and other local leaders allowing for less and less community involvement. Expectations to meet budgets rose, while Bill’s ability to incentivize community support and employee-buy in decreased. At first Bill was simply frustrated about the loss of direct influence over his business, but eventually with conditions tightening, Bill was feeling so strapped that his ability to respond to market needs was completely gone that he told his boss he could no longer fulfill the organizations’ expectation.
You may remember the coined phrase Think globally, act locally. At the time, this phrase was used in many different contexts, however, if we apply it to Bill’s scenario, significant decision making power needs to be left with leaders of a certain area of responsibility. To be clear, the amount of responsibility must be met with the amount of decision-making authority or trust. Trust that the leader will do what is needed to accomplish the organizational objectives. Owners, top executives, far-away leaders will need to trust that their chosen person and/or team will make the appropriate decision(s) that lead to sustainable outcomes. You may wonder if the top executives of Bill’s company are the better leaders than Bill? And you may ponder who knows Bill’s market and business better? He or his top executives? In most cases it is trust that will lead to common ground and buy-in for whatever decisions are needed.
How Can You Develop A Culture of Trust?
This can be a bit of a journey! The more you trust yourself, the faster it will go. Here are some bullet proof steps that will lead to a culture of trust:
Look for the good in your team
Acknowledge and appreciate everything you like that is being accomplished and give uplifting feedback when there is a variance from the desired outcome
Reward people for being honest with you, especially when they are taking a significant risk to do so.
Encourage the team to work together in solution finding.
Point people who complain about others back to the person they need to resolve the issue with unless they have tried to do so and failed. Then, simply hold the space for them to resolve things and involve yourself only if absolutely everything else fails. However, make sure you insist that the conflict will be resolved.
Say what you are going to do and follow through.
Make yourself vulnerable if you cannot fulfill a promise – you too are human
Create and support opportunities to interact leisurely between team members.
Have fun together.
Be genuine.
“Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.” Stephen R. Covey
You got this!
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