There is no great leadership without trust

I used to have a colleague who - to begin with - wouldn’t trust anybody in his team. Instead, he expected every new team member to earn his trust during the first few months of employment. Until that point, he was anxiously following their performance to assess, whether he should fire them before their trial period was over. The result: people started underperforming as they experienced their manager’s distrust, negative feedback, and micromanagement. 

The only way to break a vicious circle like this is to start a new relationship with trust. 

A leader should always choose to trust the team, to begin with. Another old colleague of mine described this attitude as that of a parent: a parent always trusts their child and believes in them until it’s simply not possible. Even if the child fails, the parent believes they can change course and improve. The parent only stops believing in the child when there are no other options. This is indeed a very different approach than my other colleague's viewpoint, that only very selected people can be trusted, and all trust must be earned. 

I am not promoting naivety here. Some people cannot be trusted for one reason or another. But for a leader, it’s necessary to assume the best with new employees. 

Few things are more central to good leadership than building an environment of trust.

According to research by Paul J. Zak, compared with people at low-trust companies, people at high-trust companies report 74% less stress, 50% higher productivity, 13% fewer sick days, 76% more engagement, and 40% less burnout.  

If a team doesn’t trust the colleagues or their leader and the leader doesn’t trust the team members, things can get done, but not very effectively: there is micromanagement, duplication of efforts, and competition on who gets credit on achievements.  

When people trust each other, they openly share information, ask for help when needed, and generally reach better results. 

What makes employees trust their leader and one another?

According to work by Frances Frei and Anne Morris, there are three major drivers for trust in organizations: 

1) Authenticity - people believe they interact with the real you instead of someone you pretend to be

2) Logic - there is sound reasoning behind the choices you make 

3) Empathy - employees believe that you really care about them and their success

These three drivers are fundamentally important in any trust-based relationship: between the leader and the employee and among peers as well.  

Trust is always a two-way street.  There won’t be trust in the organization unless the leader trusts the employees. The leader must give the team autonomy and freedom to do things in their own way. This doesn’t mean abandoning the team - the leader should be available if needed. In fact, one of the key responsibilities of any leader is removing roadblocks. An effective leader makes sure that the team members have ownership and get full credit for the work they have done. 

Trust is a choice a leader must make to be a leader. A leader cannot expect each team member to earn trust - trust needs to be the starting point, the default setting in the relationship. There are times when trust is broken. But if trust is the starting point, that is less likely to happen than if the leader generally is suspicious and doesn’t trust the team.  

Trust leads to empowerment and proactiveness. It’s beneficial both for well-being and for productivity. 

#leadership #empathy #trust #employeeexperience