
Trust might be a small word, but it is a big, complicated topic.
Most leaders understand the importance of building trust in their teams and across them.
Yet, throw in a bit of risk or uncertainty and leaders become reactive - not quite realising the damage they are creating in the process.
As the saying goes, trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair.
Too often I see leaders, with good intentions, creating distrust during high risk situations. Let's take a look at the common ones.
This frequently arises when a new team or leader is tasked with overseeing a high-stakes project.
The overseeing leader organises for the new manager to lead a certain task and then at the last minute takes over and does it (bulldozing them in the process), gets someone else to do the task or changes their mind about how it's done.
Even worse is when the existing leader steps in and announces the new change without involving the new manager. Coming in and taking over, not only makes the new manager confused and frustrated, but potentially tarnishes their leadership in front of their new team. Not only that, it's almost guaranteed they will also distrust you.
Strategy: When empowering a new leader or team, the leader involved in mentoring the new leader must give them the chance to make decisions including role or process changes. Avoid stepping in and making changes that mean usurping the authority of your mentee. Ensure you clearly communicate issues and guide them to properly communicate changes to their team. Do what you can to ensure their team regards them in a positive light.
As we saw in the recent US elections, employees can experience a variety of emotions depending on the election result.
Your workforce will also hold opposing political views - be it election outcomes, the war in Gaza or even climate change.
Being able to accept people who have different views to you requires emotional maturity and not taking sides. It's also required if we want to be able to foster safe work places.
Strategy: Champion contextual competence—the ability to engage with individuals based on their current situation or viewpoints rather than your expectations. This involves foreseeing potential distractions during politically tense times and allowing employees the space to process complicated emotions without additional stress.
Staff should feel confident that they can express concerns, ask questions, and communicate their needs without the worry of being judged or facing repercussions. Fear, division, and uncertainty can undermine trust within teams, making it challenging for individuals to feel secure. Leaders are essential in restoring this trust by encouraging open communication and creating opportunities for emotional expression (and championing respectful behaviour to others).
Despite robust employment figures in Australia, small and medium businesses in particular are doing it tough. Spending is being curtailed across a range of industries that is spooking a lot of CEOs, business owners and executives.
A common complaint I'm hearing from managers is that their CEO is making fear based comments about the future of the business in front of staff. There is a tendency to respond in a knee-jerk fashion to falling sales, customer attrition and strategies no longer working. It comes across as not trusting that staff are doing a good job.
And as a small business owner myself, I know the fear of meeting payroll (and paying payroll taxes) when business is dwindling. Yet, if we wish to ensure the success of business we have to help employees believe that our future is better than our past.
It's important to keep trusting your people, even when things are shifting around you.
Strategy: Do what you can to reduce your fear about future business success and mounting costs. Reduce your negative reactions to bad news. When you come from fear and make comments that threaten people's security, you will reduce their ability to find solutions to the present situation. The key to turning around your business is empowering your people to find solutions to changing market conditions. Teams that are trusted react more swiftly, adjust more efficiently, and innovate under stress.
Of course, this is the big one that most companies get wrong.
When redundancies happen without a clear explanation of the new direction, remaining employees may question the company’s stability and leadership
It's important to be respectful to people and treat them humanely. Otherwise, you not only risk having a negative impact on those who get to stay, but you can damage your brand reputation that will make it harder to recruit in the future.
Strategy: Avoid making announcements right before major holidays or on a Friday afternoon. Ensure you have put in the right support mechanisms to help those who are made redundant find another role and those who are left behind. Layoffs inevitably lead to trust challenges within the organisation, particularly if employees are caught off guard or if the process is managed without sensitivity.
When there is a lot of change or challenging economic conditions, it's critical that leaders modify their knee-jerk reactions to negatives news or changing situations. Avoid blaming staff or tightening controls that signify a lack of trust in people's capabilities.
Remember, when there is high-risk, people are more likely to be distrustful. Your workforce will already be worried about their future prospects - don't feed their fear by treating them as scapegoats or bulldozing over others.
After all, we can never take workplace trust for granted. It can take years to build. Building trust is a deliberate act of leadership. Without it, you will find it even more difficult to respond to changing circumstances.
Together, as a united front, is the only way to succeed and thrive during uncertain times.
Trust might be a small word, but it is a big, complicated topic.
The world needs more high-trust leaders. Leaders, who support those around them, respect other people’s viewpoints and who are open to being challenged and challenging...