Trust may be a small word, but it is incredibly complex. It means different things to different people. How we see trust is based on our life experiences, beliefs, values, the context we find ourselves in and our personality traits.
One of the interesting things I get to do is undertake stakeholder interviews with various members of the leadership team and other stakeholders (such as their employees or customers). I get to hear lots of different perspectives. But it can be fascinating when my research leads me to one person who is pretty much causing all the issues. It can be eye-opening interviewing them (or coaching them) and discover their slightly delusional perspective of what is really happening.
Imagine a workplace in dim light. Employees can't see one another properly or what work is being done. People become fearful, hold back from committing to their full potential and distrust the situation. Greed, corruption, conflict and poor accountability become the norm because people go into self-protection mode when they don't know what's going on. A lack of visibility tacitly enables poor leadership and employee behaviours to run rampant.
One of the things that I strongly believe in, that I mention in my book, Trusted to Thrive, is how leaders make a huge difference in making people feel better about themselves.
In the December 2021 issue of Harvard Business Review, an article by Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez called The Project Economy has Arrived discussed how projects have become the new economic engine of organisations.
As a leader, your job is to create an environment where people work together in service of a shared goal - a high achievement environment where people wake up in the morning excited about going to work, hanging out with others and solving problems together.
For many leaders, managing trust in their teams is a challenge because there are three different trust forces at play. These can be either supportive or oppositional.
Excited to announce my book launch party. It's going to be a fun event with networking, learning, story-telling and prizes.
The pandemic has been a game-changer in so many aspects. In the workplace, it has really crystallised what we want in our work experience.
If you have gone to Business School or studied economics, you would have been taught that humans are self-interested creatures who like to do minimal effort for maximum pay.