GUEST EDITORPhilip Sigler, Jr.
Trust is the foundation for any success you achieve as a leader. Leaders cannot succeed without establishing and solidifying trust with each member of their team.
Most of us view trust as all or nothing: You either trust a colleague completely or you don’t. Let’s expand our thinking regarding trust and see how it is multi-faceted.
In the past, you might have had a colleague who did a great job on a project you worked on together and they subsequently took more credit for the success than they should have. Did you feel greater trust with them because of your successful outcome or did it diminish due to their (alleged) theft of recognition?
Human beings are hardwired with a negative bias, so most of us select the latter. In our current all-or-nothing trust mentality, we would no longer choose to work with our colleague again due to their undermining actions. Better to protect ourselves from future letdown than to suffer the spoils of success.
Let’s rethink our approach and explore the dichotomy of trust by outlining key building blocks relating to the foundational goals of relationships, creating the three spheres of trust: Professional, Personal and Partnership.
As learning leaders, the three spheres of trust provide us with the opportunity to build a culture of coaching and development. They enable us to quantify where we have created strong trust with each person on our team, while identifying gaps for us to address.
Most leaders miss these critical facets to building trust, coaching well in some areas, while missing clues in others, resulting in lower productivity and higher departure rates in the long run. To achieve consistent success and long-lasting employee satisfaction, leaders should strive to elevate all the spheres of trust with everyone on their team.
Trust can be compartmentalized into these three key spheres, each sphere containing two subsets of trust. As you review the following descriptors of each sphere, and the subsets constituting them, reflect on your current leadership interactions with each member of your team and identify which spheres and subsets of trust you objectively have established and which ones you can improve upon.
As you consider the unique needs of each team member, your comprehensive analyses will reach diverse conclusions, allowing you to individualize the trust you continue to build.
Professional trust requires the balance of career and coaching. As a leader, you build trust with your employees by supporting their career goals while providing them with coaching to develop their skills.
Consider a manager you had (or currently have) who helped you succeed in your work while embracing your ambitions to go beyond your current role.
Some managers can be solid in either career or coaching but not in both. A manager can provide amazing opportunities to develop an employee in their current role, asking great questions and directing them to learning resources. Yet when discussing promotion opportunities, they aren’t able or willing to make that happen.
As a leader, balance your coaching with team members while having those career conversations. Having those check-ins consistently ensures you will better assist them should their aspirations change.
Personal trust comprises the trust you have in a colleague as a confidant as well as the quality of connections you make with them.
Serving as a confidant to your team requires that you create an environment of safety, where they can express their concerns and come to work bringing their entire selves. You develop high levels of personal trust by keeping your interactions with each employee secure. When they vent frustrations to you about a work situation, they are confident they won’t hear about it from someone else. Likewise, when appropriate, you feel safe sharing your thoughts with them, including concerns and aspirations.
Along with this, you create high quality connections with your team, not just focusing on the quantity of coaching discussions. Your employees will look forward to hearing from you; if they see your name pop up on their Caller ID, they don’t click you over to voicemail. You go beyond talking about business by helping them reframe challenges and find solutions.
High-connection leaders create an open forum to listen to their people yet don’t allow them to wallow in negative emotions. Make consistent connections with your team and create a safe environment for them to openly express themselves.
Partnership trust is defined by collaboration and competence when getting the work done.
Leaders developing collaboration trust learn to gauge how much to delegate to an employee and allow them to flourish or safely fail. How closely does our employee keep us involved with the work we are doing together? How proactively and consistently do they provide updates? How much do they share insights and connections, even when they don’t have to?
Partnership trust is also measured by the level of competence demonstrated to support each other’s working efforts. Employees will look to you as their leader to demonstrate the working knowledge necessary to guide their efforts. In turn, the level to which your employee capably completes a given task will build your trust in them for future opportunities.
Find that balance with each employee for each project, measuring their skill level while determining their need for oversight. Share your thoughts with them and allow them to express how they feel about a given outcome. Clearly state to them that you have their best interests for continued success at heart.
Trust requires vulnerability. This can be difficult for many leaders, as many of us are not comfortable being vulnerable, feeling we must show confidence in all things at all times.
Plus, there is a fair amount of risk involved with vulnerability, since we are handing some of our autonomy and control to someone else. The measure of that risk is calculated by the need for a desired outcome (best-case or worst-case scenario) with the level of our tolerance for risk (averse vs. accepting).
As a leader, practice discretionary trust. When you have an opportunity to give responsibility to someone on your team, after objectively measuring the risk involved, put your trust in them. Let them demonstrate their capabilities to you. You might overhear them at the next meeting saying to other colleagues on the team, “I’d run through a brick wall for them.”
Take time to assess the three spheres of trust with your team. Gauge where your relationship stands with each direct report and write down one or two action steps you can take to elevate your mutual trust.
By using this model, you could shore up a higher degree of trust in key areas to create a healthier and more productive working environment, leading to a higher level of employee engagement.
Trust isn’t all or nothing – so build trust where you can. As leaders, trust is everything!
Philip Sigler Jr. is senior associate director, omnichannel training, for Boehringer Ingelheim. Connect with Philip through linkedin.com/in/sigler5pidtrainingdesignerfacilitator. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not necessarily those of this employer.