What's TRUST got to do with it?
Far too many companies and certainly, many I have worked with, have a trust issue, and the trust issue is that people don’t believe that they can count on others, oftentimes the leaders, to do what they lead these people to believe they will do.
Companies will call in a coach or a consultant to address leadership issues or staff engagement challenges, maybe even strategy development etc and often, we uncover a Trust issue. One that everybody is aware of and nobody wants to address.
Three ways this TRUST issue shows up in organizations within the Executive Leadership Levels are:
1. When strategies are being discussed to determine the best approach to meet an objective and individuals’ ideas are not included, these individuals leave that meeting, neither bought in nor committed to the success of the “winning” strategy. They undermine this strategy at every opportunity, because their ideas were not considered.
2. You notice that the other executive team members are unwilling to engage in conflict and instead are very agreeable to everything said in meetings. Usually, they are more concerned with being a “good” team player and “suck-up” to the CEO or the board members. Outside of these meetings, they express their distaste, dislike, frustrations, and outright objections by their body language, expressions, and their general attitude.
3. Your willingness to be accepting and accommodating of others’ ideas with the expectation that this will result in their commitment going forward. Instead, your accommodation is met with more and more demands on you, without any commitment from them.
This trust issue is evident in the rest of the organization in these ways:
1. Micro-management. Leaders reluctance to rely on their teams to do their jobs, instead they give them the objective and closely instruct, observe and control the step-by-step activities to its conclusion.
2. Communication break-down. People doing similar task without realizing, not treating each other appropriately or even as simple as not communicating with people using the form of communication they prefer.
3. Failure to deliver on promises made. Often employers agree to pay, provide benefits or offer employees specific work and when employees perceive that you default on this, they pay it forward by failing to deliver on their own words, creating a downward spiral of “No Trust” in the organization.
The cost of this Lack of Trust in your company includes:
1. Ideas. I discovered that great ideas come from the belly of your organization and when there is no trust, people keep their ideas to themselves.
2. Solutions. I also discovered that sometimes, the best solutions come from the belly of your organization because your people see and experience the problems every day and have many ideas to solve them but are disengaged or disenchanted and instead, withhold sharing because they no longer care.
3. Great employees. In an environment of toxicity, it’s only a matter of time before your strongest and best players leave. They are likely, in demand and have other options. Or, they know they will thrive whatever they do and prefer to leave rather than stay.
With all this, why is Lack of Trust allowed to fester in the workplace?
1. Wrong, short & single-sighted focus only on revenue, rather than staying in alignment with your company values and commitments made.
2. Leaders unfortunate habit of surrounding themselves with yes Ma’am/Sir folks so they hear only themselves echoed back to them, instead of what they should or need to hear, to stay on track or broaden their perspectives.
3. The dreaded negative office politics of people pertually aligning themselves with those they believe have power, to gain advantages over others.
4. Its easier to continue playing the game as is, rather than unravelling the status quo, speaking truth to power and facing the scary backlash as well as the unknown outcomes.
If you notice some or all the above in your company, here are 5 ways that you can start to build trust among your teams and within your company:
1. Give clear objectives or communicate your vision clearly and often.
2. Be consistent in your behavior and expectations.
3. Play the long game, commit to do the right thing, rather than the easy thing.
4. Ask the opinions of people who don’t normally share and acknowledge and validate their input.
5. Be the Trust you want to see in your organization.
What’s TRUST got to do with it? EVERYTHING.
I’m Nadine Seaga and I’m a Life & Leadership Coach, Founder & Chief Energy Officer (CEO) of People Development Consultants. I can help you to harness your full potential and the full potential of your most valuable asset! Check out more of my website here at pdconsults.com for more information or shoot me an email at nadine@pdconsults.com to connect and get started on this life-changing work.