Earn Employees’ Trust to Establish Credibility and Get Respect

Trust is the foundation of any relationship, and successful leaders understand that it’s essential to building an engaged, productive workforce. When employees feel confident their managers and other leaders will be transparent and open, they’re more likely to reciprocate, which will only serve to strengthen the organization.This week, I’ve been reading about how to earn employees’ trust. I think you’ll find these recent blog posts and articles useful.  How Great Leaders Build Trust And Increase Employee Engagement. Forbes: “Delegation sends people into the pain network when it falls to the micro-management side of the spectrum or when what we call “drive by delegation” occurs—delegating without getting buy in, commitment, or assessing capability and capacity. Both sides of the spectrum indicate a lack of trust and misunderstanding about responsibilities. Both sides are going to fire up the pain network in both parties….Proper delegation activates the reward network and is a win-win for everyone. Our clients use the ‘SmartTribes Playbook: Effective Delegation Process’ to successfully complete these steps: assess capabilities and capacity, plan the outcome using a guided question format, set up milestones and implement tracking and check-ins.”Trust, Respect Build Strong Workplace Teams. The Tennessean: “In order to achieve a productive level of investment from team members, there must be a foundation of ‘trust and respect,’ said Marc Haas, business unit manager for General Motors and adjunct professor of leadership studies at Trevecca Nazarene University. Haas carefully sets tone whenever he starts working with a team in the workplace or a new classroom of students. When he walks in, he starts to make disclosures to demonstrate that it's okay not to know everything and it's okay to ask questions. For example, on the first day of a new semester Haas admits to his students that he struggles with spelling. By making this disclosure, Haas sets the tone for people to feel comfortable making mistakes, asking questions and speaking openly about challenges.”Trust is a Must for Inclusive Leaders! LinkedIn Pulse: “Effective listening, perhaps more than any other leadership trait, builds trust that is the precursor to engagement in any organization. Workers in this new inclusive environment follow those they trust. As trust erodes, so does followership. Trust demands transparency. Inclusive leaders must be comfortable with giving honest feedback and telling the truth. In a world where tweets travel around the globe with the click of a mouse, if consumers aren’t hearing it from you, they’ve already heard it from someone else. This is no longer a world where you can share one message with shareholders and another with the workforce—messages must be aligned, and reflect reality, for better or worse.”How to Improve your Credibility or Trust at Work: 11 Top Ways. WiseStep: “Learning from your mistakes: As human beings, we all make mistakes, no one is perfect. It is important that once you have made a mistake you accept it and move on. However post committing an error it is important to not become vulnerable and start second guessing yourself. If you doubt your own abilities you are doing nothing but feeding your own insecurities and making yourself weak. No matter what, you should stand by your decisions, be mature enough to accept criticism and hold your head up high. Experimenting or trying out things for the first time might often end in failure but sometimes that risk is worth taking as it might lead to success. Once people at work understand that you never take decisions without weighing the pros and cons then they will respect you nonetheless and this respect will help improve your credibility.”3 Sure-Fire Ways to Ruin Trust with Your Team. The People Equation: “Not every disagreement from a team member is an attack on your character or your intellect. Believe it or not, some leaders are perfectly comfortable with their team members saying, ‘Um, Stacie, that’s a terrible idea, and here’s why.’ They’ve cultivated an atmosphere of ‘tell me if I’m off track’ and their employees are comfortable giving difficult feedback. If you’ve never heard your team push back on your ideas, then most likely you are somehow sending the message that disagreement is a bad thing. The next time a spirited debate takes place at a meeting and you feel your ideas are being attacked, remind yourself that it’s the idea being questioned, not who you are as a person.”Need help earning employees’ trust at your organization? Contact us; we’re happy to assist.Success Labs is a leadership development and management consulting firm in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For more than 25 years, our expert team of consultants has worked with hundreds of companies to explore their business potential and improve their company and cultural performance. Contact us to get proactive about your people strategy.