Trust is a word everyone understands but few can accurately define or measure. It seems at once essential but fluffy, complex yet simple. According to the Human Capital Institute, trust can be defined as “the willingness to put oneself at risk based on another individual’s actions.”
What does that mean in a business context? And how can trust be measured in economic terms like risk, speed, and cost? Research has shown that high-trust organizations have a total return to shareholders (stock price plus dividends) that is 286 percent higher than low-trust organizations. The top 25% of retail stores that rank high on trust achieve 7% above budget annual sales and 14% sales productivity gains. The impact of trust on productivity and efficiency is clear.
Surprisingly, the simplicity of trust lies in the economics: as trust increases, so does speed. Speed goes up in high-trust cultures because costs and risks go down. In organizations where trust is low, costs and risks go up, resulting in a trust tax that slows down work across the organization.
So it follows that as companies grow, trust often erodes because it becomes increasingly difficult to develop relationships, resulting in layers upon layers of bureaucracy that act as a poor substitute for trust. In fast-paced business environments where companies must evolve quickly to keep up with the speed of technology, building and maintaining trust at scale is more important than ever.
The complexity of trust is that it can be difficult to build, yet easy to break. While trust can take a long time to build, it is also delicate enough to be destroyed through a single action or misconception. Yet the benefits of investing time into building trust can lead to exponential results.
Trust, especially trust in leadership, is absolutely essential to a company’s everyday interactions and long-term goals. And, because you need this trust to run your business well, I'm here to show you how to build and maintain it.
COMMUNICATIONS . ACTIONS . ENVIRONMENT.
These three aspects of a workplace can be leveraged by leaders to build trust.
Master the activities outlined below and you’ll be on your way to building a highly engaged – and trusting – workplace.
Regular, transparent communication is essential to building trust in the workplace. Transparency is a word that has become increasingly popular (dare I say trendy?), and for good reason: When leaders are transparent, employees feel valued. This communicates to employees that they are important enough to be in the know. As a result, organizations with transparent leadership are more successful.
Communicate until it hurts. Then communicate some more.
Communication leads to clarity, and the opportunities for progress are endless. For organizations that stress transparency, communication is an ongoing process with ongoing results.
SAY IT
Keep reading for 10 strategies to help you build trust through your communication.
1) Define your values and make sure they're well circulated.
By defining and making values known, you hold yourself accountable and open yourself up for improvement and feedback. For example, values and ideals can be shared via a culture book or posted on an office wall.
2) Be open about your organization's goals and finances.
And not just the ones that look great on paper. Remember, the more you let employees in, the more they’ll feel like part of the team. What does this look like?
• Hold quarterly conference calls with mid-level leaders to discuss how individual units and the company as a whole are doing.
• Start framing your decisions in financial terms and potential impacts – both in best case and worst case scenarios.
• Post a weekly or daily target that keeps the company on track with its quarterly or yearly plan. Outlining clear goals gives team members something to achieve.
3) Provide clear communication around hard decisions.
Times of change can be a huge source of uncertainty in the workplace, but they can also
provide an excellent opportunity for increased clarity, which will lead to improved trust and engagement. Sources of change include everything from layoffs and leadership turnover to reorganizations or relocations, and you as a leader are going to have to make difficult choices. If there’s ever a time to over-communicate, this is it.
"People trust the clear and mistrust or distrust the ambiguous."
--David Horsager
Author of The Trust Edge: How Top Leaders Gain Faster Results, Deeper Relationships, and a Stronger Bottom Line
4) Avoid gossip at all costs.
Your employees look to you as a business standard – what they should and shouldn’t be doing, what’s allowed and what’s not. Once you, as a leader, have gossiped, you lose all credibility. People no longer trust you to tell them the truth, nor do they feel safe telling you confidential information. Additionally, this action has implicitly given your employees permission to be blabbermouths themselves.
5) Be intentional with your word choice.
Our speech patterns directly influence company thought and culture, and with our words, we have the power to create (or destroy). When you’re speaking or writing, make sure you are using precisely the words you intend.
For example, the word “manager”: Processes are managed, people aren’t.
Use “leader” instead.
"Don’t ever diminish the power of words. Words move hearts and hearts move limbs."
--Hamza Yusuf
6) Ask real questions.
You have a life beyond the office, and so do your employees. Inquire beyond the cursory,
“How have the kids been?” Get to know your employees’ interests, goals, and aspirations to move past typical small talk. Try to upgrade your standard conversation starters:
• Did you catch the Olympics finals last night?
* What do you think of this year’s host country?
* Where do you think the next Olympics should be held?
• How are your kids?
* My son just showed me how to face-swap on Snapchat.
* What’s something new your kids are making you feel old with?
*I always admire people who work and have families – what’s your secret?
• How was your drive in today?
* I’d give anything to have a blue Mini Cooper in my parking spot.
* What’s your dream way to get to work?
*What radio station did you listen to on the way to work?
• Where did you go to school?
* What’s one class you wish you would have taken?
* If you were asked, what would you guest lecture on?
Ask these questions, remember the answers, and follow up. Make sure to take the time to stop and ask about a daughter’s basketball game or how the kitchen remodel is going. Questions like these show 1) that you care about what they care about, and 2) that your relationship with him or her is important enough to keep tabs on.
7) Filter and translate senior leaders' communications to make them applicable to your team.
Many times, senior memos only make sense to those who understand the jargon and know the pieces of the bigger picture. Make it easier on everyone and break down exactly what the memos mean to your team.
8) Create regular space for two-way communication between leaders and employees.
As a supplement to yearly reviews, nurture an environment of ongoing performance conversations. These conversations can be part of rour routine and, with the exception of our remote employees, they happen in person. Each employee has a monthly one-on-one meeting with his or her supervisor over breakfast, lunch, or even happy hour. It’s
an excellent way to catch up, stay informed, and help each employee feel connected to leadership and company goals. We call them GOODs, which stands for Goals, Obstacles, Opportunities, and Decisions.
9) Share success stories about how you're helping your customers.
When employees know what the company as a whole is executing, they understand the importance of their specific role. These stories can be shared on the company website, circulated through a weekly email, or posted around the office.
10) Say thank you and make gratitude a regular part of conversation.
Nothing breeds distrust faster than unappreciative leaders. Gratitude makes an employee feel like an important contributor. By saying thank you, a leader says, “Hey, I can’t do this all by myself.”
DO IT
As a leader, you must do more than talk the talk. Actions back up the hard communication gains you’ve made. You’ve told your employees you value trust, but these larger actions show a greater commitment.
Action takes time and vulnerability. Don’t be scared to try something new or fail in the process. Even if it doesn’t work quite right, your employees will appreciate the effort and see that their leader cares about creating stability, knowing team members, and opening up.
The next 16 activities provide exercise for your leadership muscles, while also building employee trust
11) Act with compassion.
Remember to treat employees with kindness and love. Often, in the heat of a big decision or
project, kindness is the last thing on our to-do lists. Having compassion shows employees that you have their best interests in mind, making them feel more comfortable putting their careers in your hands. Examples include:
• Lending a hand when a team member is under a tight deadline.
• Sending flowers if there’s a death or serious illness in a family.
• Attending things that are important to your employees, whether it be weddings, sporting events, or concerts.
• Bringing a stressed employee a cup of coffee.
12) Do what is right instead of what is easy.
People trust leaders who prioritize the needs of others and the company over their own
comfort or contentedness. This sacrifice shows a commitment to the goal, and employees will respond likewise.
13) Know your team’s strengths.
Is Martha good at problem solving? Give her the complex, multifaceted situation analysis. Is Kevin excellent with people? Assign him to the most difficult clients. As a leader, it is essential that you know the strengths and weaknesses of your team. After observing and identifying those strengths, make the most of them. When assigning tasks this way, employees are reassured that you know them well and that you want to set them up for success.
14) Recognize outstanding achievements.
Recognition makes employees feel valued. Feeling valued is one of the critical areas the research has shown to have the strongest association with overall engagement, yet few leaders actually excel in this area. This presents a great opportunity for improvement. When employees feel valued, their engagement and productivity rises, and they are motivated to do their jobs better because they trust their leader will notice their work. Here are some ways to recognize outstanding performance:
• Host a monthly Champions’ Dinner (like software company Hubspot), where each department sends one “champion” to dine with senior leaders.
• Send out a company/department email or announce it at your weekly meeting. Sometimes all an employee needs is recognition in front of his
or her peers.
• Take the time to write a thank you note and drop it in your team member’s mailbox. This communicates that you’re willing and able to
put time and thought into employees.
15) Recognize exceptional effort, even if the end result isn’t exceptional.
Not every measure, initiative, or strategy is successful. That’s business. Don’t forget to recognize these employees, though. Recognize time and effort, and help employees rebuild confidence by turning failure into a learning experience
16) Establish monthly or quarterly town hall meetings.
Town hall meetings are used to communicate important company news, reflect on past results, and look forward to the future. Providing a regularly scheduled time for dialogue ensures that your employees know that you’ll always have a space for their comments and suggestions. Group meetings also show that you’re not afraid to talk out issues in front of the entire organization.
17) Conduct leader lunches.
Offer the opportunity for your employees to grab lunch with higher leadership once or several times a month. The lunch setting can provide for a more casual and open dynamic, allowing employees to feel more comfortable. Whether brown-bagging or going out, this is also a great time to talk about non-work related things – making leadership more personable, and therefore, more trustworthy. Different formats include
• Taking ten randomly drawn employees out to lunch.
• Publicizing “drop in” times while a leader eats lunch in the cafeteria.
• Preparing and cooking a meal for the office or team.
• Grabbing lunch with the new hires of the month.
• Eating in groups that include one member from each level, branch, or location of the organization.
18) Launch an employee engagement survey.
Collecting feedback from employees is the most important step toward gaining trust. Asking for honest evaluation shows employees that you’re interested in what they have to say and that you prioritize their everyday well-being. Annual employee engagement surveys are used to get a bird’s-eye view of engagement and overall workplace perceptions. It is essential to conduct these comprehensive surveys annually: not only will the routine give employees a sense of security
19) Send out pulse surveys.
Leaders also need to demonstrate that they value employees’ opinions all the time, not
just when it’s convenient for them. Pulse surveys, which are interspersed between annual employee engagement surveys, are a great way stay in tune with your company’s happenings.
20) Create focus groups.
Employees crave the opportunity to talk more in depth with peers or leaders. When you
create a comfortable environment that supports these small-group discussions, you build trust by providing a safe space where employees to be vulnerable
21) Ask for upward feedback.
Allow employees to provide direct feedback to their manager. Make sure your process allows for two-way communication and anytime feedback; without these features, the feedback process can seem superficial and hasty. While the upward feedback process can be scary, employees are more apt to trust a leader who has a complete and accurate picture of his
or herself. And besides, employees are most likely talking about your leadership already;
wouldn’t you rather know what they’re saying?
"Better to trust the man who is frequently in error than the one who is never in doubt."
--Eric Sevareid, CBS News Correspondent
22) Be open to feedback.
If we’re asking our team members for feedback, we have to be able to take it. How should we act in those conversations?
Step 1: Show appreciation for feedback. Say thank you. This was probably a scary conversation for your employee to start.
Step 2: Don’t react right away. Hear out your team member, and put away the defensiveness.
Step 3: Remember the purpose of feedback is to get better – who wouldn’t want that?
Step 4: Ask questions to deconstruct the feedback. This shows you are taking it seriously and want to know more.
Step 5: Request a time to follow up. Feedback only works if change happens. This will hold you accountable and show your commitment to being a great leader.
23) Uncover your team’s level of trust in senior leaders.
You are a critical member of the feedback chain. Ask your employees how they view senior leaders, and pass this up to higher leadership. Encourage employees to think critically about improvements or solutions they would like to see.
24) Attend leadership forums to learn how others in your sphere build employee trust.
Just like the rest of your staff, leaders need ongoing coaching, advice, and continuing education. Not only do these events increase your leadership IQ, they also show employees that leadership is more than a title; it’s a never-ending learning process.
25) Look for feedback during exits.
While this often proves to be a time of uncertainty for the team, it’s important to use an
employee’s departure as an opportunity to improve company engagement. In these scenarios, listen to both groups: the employee who left and your current employees.
Exiting employees: Ask for feedback from employees who are on their way out the door. Not only will you gain insight into organizational short-falls, this practice also shows your current employees that you’re not afraid of critique or competition.
Current employees: Ninety-five percent of employees believe they can help leaders understand why former employees left – put that knowledge to work! Surveying an exiter’s peers can help get better picture of why an employee left. Additionally, these surveys demonstrate to employees that you value and research both sides of a story.
26) Follow up.
Have follow-up meetings after major projects, surveys, performance conversations,
and organizational changes. Go over what went wrong, what went right, etc. Follow-up demonstrates to employees that you want to learn from past experiences. A leader who learns signals one who will be open and trustworthy.
LIVE IT
The culture is the final realization of a leader’s trustworthiness: he or she has spoken trustworthy words and demonstrated trust in action. Now, the leader must prove true and living commitment to trust by creating an environment where trust is woven into the very fabric of the organization.
Here are 7 ideas to help.
"Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed; the culture reflects the realities of people working together every day."
--Frances Hasselbein, Former CEO, Girls Scouts of the USA
27) Consider culture in all decisions.
Employees experience the consequences of good or bad culture, and when you protect what is good about your culture, you earn the trust of your employees. A leader can talk about the importance of a good company culture all he or she wants, but unless he or she makes decisions to preserve and protect this culture, the words are worthless.
28) Connect the what and why.
When employees can see exactly what their time is being used for, they are able to relax: they know they’re not being exploited. To do this, it’s imperative you connect your employees to a sense of purpose. Communicate why employees’ work matters and how their specific job furthers that purpose. How to do that?
• Small group discussion: Hold a workshop day to discuss questions like, “Who is our company serving?” and “What value do we bring to customers’ lives?”
• Buyer personas: Get to know the detailed stories of your customers.
• Impactful visuals: Hang pictures of customers or industry accomplishments around the office.
29) Listen to and value employee input from the top down.
Listening is an essential means of building trust, and it is critical that everyone from the C-suite
down understands the value of employee input. Ensure that employee input occurs constantly and will be taken seriously. Become the best listener you can be by
• Facing the speaker and maintaining eye contact
• Keeping an open mind
• Listening, and then trying to picture what the speaker is saying
• Avoid interrupting
• Using facial expressions to show you’re listening
• Asking questions to clarify
30) Be accessible but close the door the "Open Door Policy"
It’s important that employees feel welcome to approach and talk to their leaders, and keepingyour office door open is a great way to do this. However, the term “open-door” has become an easy buzzword for leadership to use and employees to doubt. You need to show your employees that this policy is an integral part of your culture.
Try some of these ideas:
• Have regular 1:1 dialogues.
• Get outside of your office and walk around the bigger workspace.
• Imitate your college professors and hold regular office hours.
• Join Slack, Skype, or another workplace messaging service, and let your employees know that you’re available in these ways as well.
31) Meet employees where they are.
Set a goal of spending a specified amount of time each month wherever your employees.
congregate socially in the office (break room, cafeteria, etc.). While this may be a shock to employees at first, your consistent presence will slowly dissolve the barriers between front-line employees and leadership. From there, listen, learn, and build trust.
32) Ensure your philanthropy matches your corporate mission.
Corporate service and giving is fantastic, but your giving seems more sincere when the charity complements your company. Consider these best practices when choosing a charity:
• Clarify your business’s values
• See where your stakeholders are giving
• Ask your team members who they support
• Compare the charity’s mission statement to your own
• Call the development office and ask for a tour
• Learn more about the charity on sites on Guidestar.org
• Make sure the organization is registered with the IRS
33) Treat employees as people.
Your employees are unique individuals, and they weren’t created to work for you.
As David Rock, President of the NeuroLeadership Institute explains,
“This presents enormous challenges to managers. Although a job is often regarded as a purely economic transaction, in which people exchange their labor of financial compensation, the brain experiences the workplace first and foremost as a social system. […] Most people who work in companies learn to rationalize or temper
their reactions; they “suck it up,” as the common parlance puts it. But they also limit their commitment and engagement. They become purely transactional employees, reluctant to give more of themselves to the company,”
and thus, reluctant to trust leaders."
As a leader, you must learn how to work with and facilitate people, not machines. Some people like to have headphones in as they work, some prefer silence, and others enjoy the buzz of a busy office. Your employees are more than transactional workers, so treat them, lead them, and trust them like the individuals they are.
To your greater impact as a trusted leader,
Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Performance Facilitator and Trainer
SMART DEVELOPMENT
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Interested in learning how Smart Development can benefit you and your organization? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please contact:
Email: petercmclees@gmail.com or Mobile: 323-854-1713
Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, branches, distribution centers, food production facilities, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth. Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.Sources:
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do-to-build-trust
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