Have you ever thought about the trust quotient of your organization? Is your organization a place where there is a high degree of trust amongst employees or is it a place where people are not trusting enough or fearful to share their views?

In the movie, The Walk, a Frenchman by the name of Petit Phillippe had a dream to walk across a wire that he would string across the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York (this was before the 9-11 tragedy). He planned the walk for many months and recruited a number of accomplices along the way to help him achieve the feat. This was an illegal walk and he and his accomplices had to sneak their equipment in at night to set up the wire across the 2 towers so that it would be ready by morning for him to walk across, before workers started coming in to work. To pull off the feat, he had to trust his accomplices in rigging the wires properly across the towers. He could not inspect the rigging himself and had to just trust that they did a proper job. Eventually he made the walk successfully and became an overnight sensation. Phillip essentially entrusted his life to his accomplices to achieve this daring but magnificent feat.

Trust is of utmost importance because we live in a world where we need to work with other people. If there is little trust between people, very little can be accomplished as people will be doubting and questioning each other all the time. Trust is an extremely valuable currency because it’s the glue that connects our relationships with others. Trust enables us to achieve great things together.

All of us know that trust is important but why is it that there is a trust deficit in organizations? Why does lack of trust come up time and again in employee surveys? Why do employees feel that there can be a greater or stronger culture of trust at the workplace?

How do we go about developing something intangible such as trust? In order to develop trust in the organization, we should be asking how to develop trust with another person. When more people starts to trust each other, the trust culture spreads. It’s as simple as that.

In this article, we will address it from the manager’s or team leader’s perspective. Manager or team leader refers to people who have others reporting to them, whether in a line function or project teams.

There is 1 thing that is critical in order for trust to be truly built. It’s got to do with the intrinsic quality of me as a person. How do I think of people? How do I perceive people? What is my mindset when it comes to working with people, whether they’re subordinates, peers or bosses? Do I love people and use things or do I use people and love things? Are my intentions to create greater value for everyone concerned or is it only for my benefit? Personal character attributes like integrity, reliability and honesty describes this intrinsic dimension of personal trust.

In addition, how we act and behave on a daily basis is also important because action speaks louder than words.  Here are 3 important ideas that will elevate the level of trust in the organization if they are practiced consistently.

Communicate Intention – communicate your intention in your day to day interaction with others, such as your peers, managers or subordinates. Explain the reasons behind your statement, opinion or request. Don’t assume others know what you are thinking. Make your thinking explicit. For example, if you think the report submitted by your staff is not up to standard, don’t just say “This report needs to be reworked. Please redo it!” or worst still say “This is rubbish! Please redo it!” Instead say “Sections A and B needs more detail. Please include description of the process flow and the detail comparisons of the different options. We need to include this because the customer will be looking out for this information.” As a manager it is important to learn how to give effective feedback. Don’t give feedback such that it creates fear of failure or mistakes in others receiving the feedback, but give it in a way such that your genuine intention to be better and to help shines through.

Be a coach – See yourself as a coach when you work with your staff. What is a coach and what is the mindset of a coach? How is it different from the business or planning or strategic aspects of your work? The difference is as a coach, you are focused on the person or people. People want to develop themselves and do good work. As a coach, you want to bring that out. Find out their level of skill and level of motivation and then support them through it. You could use a Skill-Will matrix to diagnose and then decide the appropriate coaching strategies. For example, motivate someone who is high skill and low will, or guide closely someone who is low skill and low will. When people see you putting in effort to develop them, trust in the team and the organization will grow.

Be open to feedback & invite feedback – as a manager, you have a large influence on the trust climate within your own team, regardless of the larger culture of the organization. Your team’s culture is within your circle of influence, so influence it positively. Set the right tone and climate of openness by opening yourself to the team. Take the first step and invite feedback from your team, individually or to the whole team. Keep your door open. If you want to keep feedback anonymous, ask people to drop physical feedback at your desk or email it to you from an external email account. You could ask simple but effective questions like “What feedback do you have to help me be a better manager for the team? What should I start, stop or continue doing?” Check in with people informally from time to time.

Stephen Covey says that “Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships”. Start with these 3 core ideas and when done well, it is possible for managers and leaders to make a difference and build a culture of trust in the organization.

Brief Author Profile

Chris is the founder and managing director of THINKE LLP, a company that specializes in helping individuals and organizations create transformational shifts in thinking and effectiveness. His passion and purpose is to help people be more effective, motivated and fulfilled in what they do. He also moderates the facebook group “The Thinking Executive” at https://www.facebook.com/groups/thinkexec

Chris can be reached at thinke001@gmail.com or chrischew@thinke.co