Trust, in an organisational context, means employees believe that their leadership team is dependable, demonstrates the right behaviours, keeps their promises, and has their best interests at heart. Trust can be broadly categorised in two ways:
A seminal study titled The Neuroscience of Trust (2017) found that, compared with people working in low-trust companies, employees in high-trust companies reported:
Lower stress, better engagement, higher satisfaction and decreased burnout add up to one thing: reduced turnover, which is a critical challenge for organisations in the current tight talent market.
Trust is also an essential ingredient for developing psychological safety, an environment that is achieved when team members feel confident to take risks, voice opinions and challenge ideas in the knowledge that it won’t impact their careers.
Without trust, people will not take risks. And without risk-taking, there can be no innovation.
It’s important to note that there’s a darker side to trust. Unscrupulous colleagues and managers may take advantage of other people’s willingness to trust, with many of the corporate world’s most famous scandals being based on confidence schemes. Trust in others has also been linked to unconscious bias, with one study revealing that we are more likely to trust someone who looks like us.
The fact that trust can be abused makes genuine trust – built slowly and carefully over time – even more valuable for leaders and their teams.
Building trust takes time, care and patience. Here are seven ways to begin developing trust as a leader.
A good leader is a role model and sets an example to others in terms of demonstrating company values and character traits such as trustworthiness and fairness.
One of the most basic elements of trust is being consistent in terms of following through on the promises you make. If this proves difficult, consider being more careful in terms of making promises and commitments you may not be able to keep.
Team members will find it difficult to trust you if they feel you have a tendency to stretch the truth or withhold information. Sometimes telling the truth can be uncomfortable (particularly when the business is going through a rough patch), but your team will reward you for doing so in terms of trust. Help the team understand the context around why decisions are made.
Loyal leaders defend their team and do not pass blame down the chain when things go wrong. Importantly, they recognise excellence and praise their team to upper management.
Nothing erodes trust so much as micromanaging. Looking over your team members’ shoulders and checking everything they do will make them feel you do not trust them. Empower your team to make their own decisions, then step back and watch them take ownership of their work.
It can be difficult to trust someone if they never reveal their authentic self in the workplace and never develop genuine connections. Showing vulnerability takes courage but builds trust and social capital among the team.
Rather than attempting to build trust fast with a grand gesture, build trust incrementally with lots of small acts. Examples might include trusting someone to take home office equipment without going through a lot of red tape, trusting the team to take risks, or trusting someone to work from home on certain days of the week.
How can hiring organisations spot trustworthy leaders in the recruitment process? Use behavioural-based interviewing to unearth the following traits:
According to SHRM, trust between teams and leadership can be broken abruptly through a single “triggering event” such as a major restructure, or may be eroded over time through small, subtle patterns of behaviour such as a manager regularly taking credit for other people’s work.
Fractured trust can lead to a toxic workplace culture, lower engagement and productivity, reduced innovation (due to people feeling unwilling to take risks), and higher turnover.
Repairing broken trust is critical for rebuilding a high-performing team, but it isn’t easy. Here are some ways to get started.
Start by acknowledging the issue that caused trust to be fractured.
Own up to your mistakes. Perhaps the issue was out of your control (such as a restructure), but be sure to take responsibility if the fault was yours.
If the issue still exists or is continuing to impact the team, have a transparent conversation about how to address the problem. Invite the team to contribute their ideas to ensure they feel involved in solving the problem.
Examine your own behaviours. Did you let the team down by failing to walk the talk, by withholding information, or by breaking a promise? Demonstrating trustworthy behaviours will set an example for the rest of the team and help repair a broken, mistrustful culture.
In conclusion, don’t make the mistake of underestimating the importance of trust-building in the workplace. Trust provides an essential foundation to help teams navigate through an environment of constant change and uncertainty.