Why you need to work on trust!
May 30, 2023
In a 2002 GolinHarris survey of employees, 69% of respondents said “I just don’t know who to trust anymore.” 18 years later, in the latest 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer report, 66% of people agree that they don’t have confidence in their current leaders to successfully address their country’s challenges. We live in an environment where trust is being eroded in the media, through political events, environmental incidents and now employer actions during COVID. The good news is that employers are globally seen as more trustworthy than all but medical institutions and well in front of governments!
The sad thing is that many people like you and me don't really know what trust is or how to build it. It's an ethereal concept. When I work with teams, and we talk about building trust, I sense there are teams who intuitively have a level of trust and are "working at it" and then there are the teams who look away and mutter about trust being "fluffy stuff". And then of course you have the inevitable issue that if you have low trust in a team, how do you go about talking about it to build it? It's not like you can simply have a conversation about trust. Or can you?
The Edelman Barometer says that "Ethical drivers such as integrity, dependability and purpose drive 76 percent of the trust capital of a company, while competence accounts for only 24 percent". This means trying to visibly do the right thing is 3 x more important to your employees than simply making lots of money and shareholder returns. Obviously there is a tension there because your company needs to make money to stay alive.
I have been playing with the concept of trust operating at 3 levels: Self, Teams and Systems and I'd love to share it with you. In order to build trust, one must focus on onself first - get your own house in order. Then look to others and then finally the system you occupy. I use the acronym SERVICE when I think about trust. If you're interested, you can grab my free SERVICE in Trust worksheet here.
The concept of SERVICE applies to the way you can think about framing your communications, your 1:1s, and your interactions with yourself and all stakeholders. There is a lot more to this concept which I normally cover in my 1:1 program (get in touch for a free Unlock session if you want to learn more) but I wanted to offer a few ideas below:
SERVICE stands for:
Safety - refers to both health and safety and psychological safety. Are you looking after your own mental health, wellbeing, and that of those around you? Are you watching and measuring the right statistics to indicate a change in absenteeism or incidents?
Empathy - are you listening to yourself and others and really hearing what is being said? And how you and they are feeling? COVID has seen many people adopting a task focussed, survivalist mentality to "get through". Be kinder to yourself (we are our own worst critics) and look after those around you by hearing the challenges they are having with work, home and other stressors.
Reliability - are you managing your routines and practices to keep yourself on track. We know that consistent reliable routines like exercise and reflection help us stay on track and trust our bodies and minds not to burn out. Also being consistent and doing what you said you would do for your teams is super important. They like to know you have their backs and are doing everything you can. They like communication that comes out every week.
Value - are you valuing yourself and those around you? Are you making space for the important things in your life? Are you ensuring you aren't burning your team out? And are you valuing what your organization offers in the right way?
Inclusion - are you including all of your team in decisions, changes, communications plans? Are you including yourself in time off, vacation plots? Are you checking in with those people working remotely to make sure they are not falling behind on information those in the office have access to? Are you including your clients in your communications so they know when they can expect your delivery?
Clarity - Are you clear on what you are doing and why? We know that the single biggest differentiator for a team's performance is everyone being clear on the purpose of the team. Are you clear why you're there, and what you're working on? Is everyone else? Are you communicating consistently and simply. Keep it short, regular and simple.
Expectations - Are you really clear and comfortable with what is expected of you? Is that aligned with your own balance? Are those around you aware of what is expected in terms of working from home? When to be in the office?
As I mentioned, there is a LOT more to this tool but these questions will hopefully offer some guidance to leaders to start that process of self auditing and taking sensible steps towards building trust.
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