Cultivate Trust to Enhance Team Performance
In today’s highly competitive, global market, where resources are often limited, many organizations are looking for ways to enhance organizational performance, ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors. With tougher competitive challenges and reduced timeframes to deliver, the organizations that are achieving high-performance are doing so by leveraging their talent – truly its human capital. And sustained high performance is only possible when employees are treated in ways that address their intrinsic needs. Trust promotes many of these intrinsic motivators: connectedness (being a part of a bigger team), creativity (safety in bringing ideas/solutions), collaboration (integrative projects), autonomy, and organizational commitment (higher levels of retention). Relationships and trust are related; and trust is a foundation for employee engagement, exceptional performance, commitment and motivation.
Don’t ask, “What can I do to trust my employees?” Instead ask, “What can I do for my employees to trust me?”. Trust is a building block for long-term, healthy relationships (in business, at home, in our community). Trust in the workplace is what allows employees to take control and solve problems, it inspires and empowers; trust determines how employees act even when no one is watching. Yet, so often, trust is not formally managed.
The Harvard Business Review (May-June 2020) discusses three key drivers with leadership trust: authenticity (employees believe they are seeing/knowing/working with the real you); logic (employees view you as competent and a sound decision maker); and empathy (employees believe you care about their success). Covey, in the book The Speed of Trust, discusses four key components of trust: integrity (people believe what you say and do are with ethics and morality); intent (people believe intentions are transparent and for the good of many), competency (you have the skills and knowledge to do the job) and results (you deliver consistent and quality products/services/etc.)
So, managing trust can start with a simple 2 question, employee poll: Do you trust that your manager wants you to be successful and happy? Do you trust your organization is doing right in terms of customers and employees? Some of the most effective CEO’s have stated: Take care of your employees, and your employees will take care of your customers! With this simple poll, you can then plan a program around what your employees need from their leaders to build a trusting workplace environment. And, from here, you may choose to focus an initiative around a culture of trust with leadership authenticity, leadership effectiveness/competence, decision-making, communication, empathy, and supporting each employee’s professional development.
Research shows trust impacts organizational performance.
Commitment-Trust Theory has found that '“trust is a major determining factor of relationship commitment”
High trust workplaces provide better performance outcomes: improved efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity.
Trust impacts customer purchasing loyalty.
Trust impacts motivation: Direction (what a person is planning to work on), Effort (how hard a person is trying, and Persistence (how long a person works on a challenge to find an optimal solution).
Trust is an antecedent to commitment. Trust is a key construct for individual and organizational motivation. Consider focusing on trust in your people/culture strategy focus!
Dr. Patti Sullivan is a leadership coach, working with executives in diverse organizations. For over 15 years, she has assisted leaders in challenging their limited beliefs, cultivating key relationships, finding ease in leading high performing teams, and delivering exceptional results.