Does your team trust you?
When it comes to the skills that make a good leader, trustworthiness surely comes close to the top of the list.
After all, even the most confident and visionary manager won’t get the best out of a team that doesn’t trust them.
Yet when professional services firm Ernst & Young surveyed professionals around the world, it found that less than half had a ‘great deal of trust’ in the people they currently worked for.
Why is trust so important, anyway?
For a team to really succeed, it’s vital that there’s trust between them and they know they can count on each other. Being trusted as a leader means your team will be more committed to the goals you’re all working towards - and if those goals change, they’ll find it easier to get on board with a new vision.
If employees don’t fully trust you, it can be a deciding factor in them becoming disengaged, less productive (including starting to clock-watch and working the minimum number of hours required) and ultimately looking for another role elsewhere.
The power of communication
Being able to communicate with those you report to is obviously crucial when it comes to morale, productivity and commmitment. So, when it comes to reasons that employees don’t trust their management, it’s hardly surprising that communication breakdown features highly.
The top three issues respondents highlighted in the Ernst & Young study were that their manager:
- ‘Is not open/transparent in communication’
- ‘Is not appreciative/does not provide praise and recognition for a job well done’
- ‘Does not communicate with me enough’
It appears that having positive conversations with your team is more vital than ever, not just heading off communication breakdowns but also building trust along the way.
Communicate openly and transparently
As a manager, you can’t build trust without being authentic. But transparency and authenticity in communication cover so much. It could be as simple as examining what you say - avoiding corporate-speak, cliches or management jargon and speaking in your own ‘real’ voice, if you’re not already. Talking to people, rather than at them, is also crucial.
If it’s appropriate for your business, an open-door policy to make yourself as available as possible to talk to is another positive step. What also counts is being prepared to show your vulnerability at difficult or stressful times, just as members of your team will probably be feeling - as well as having the humility and honesty to admit when you’ve made a mistake, rather than jumping to place the blame elsewhere.
Give more praise and appreciation
Most of us thrive on feeling appreciated and recognised. Being told that you’re doing a great job gives you the motivation to keep going, and improving. Rather than merely focusing on getting the job done, it’s also key to value what your workers do - and make a point of demonstrating that regularly.
But make sure you show appreciation effectively. Giving out specific praise works better than praising for the sake of it. One area to focus on could be pinpointing improvement. So if you can spot when a member of your team has improved their performance, make sure you acknowledge it.
Earning trust
In our work at RHL matching businesses with great employees, we know how key good leadership is as companies compete for the top talent out there.
And as trust really is the foundation for all good relationships and interactions, it’s worth paying it extra attention. After all, the more you can do to earn your team’s trust, the better for everyone in the long run.