THE BEDROCK OF EVERY TEAM

HAVE you ever been in a situation where you have placed so much trust in someone but then find out that he has betrayed you, and that it makes you sick to the stomach?

I reckon everyone has had this experience, at least once.

When a trusted family member or friend, or even a seemingly honest colleague, acts in a way that breaks your confidence, you will find yourself in a state of anxiety and anger.

You start questioning all those decisions made in the past, all the promises made to you, and the lack of core integrity.

A singular act of dishonesty that you think is severe can lead to a tectonic shift in your mindset. You will second-guess everything that others say. And every time you look at them, you cannot help but be suspicious.

With a spouse, distrust eventually ends with a breakup. In a family, doubt results in disharmony. In friendships, you become wary and closeted. And at work, apprehension sets in and freedom disappears.

In my experience with management consulting and leadership coaching especially, I meet people who lamented about how their bosses micromanaged everything. This is a very bad place to find yourself in.

My professional counsel always begins with leaders of organisations. I ask them to stop being so controlling and to create an environment where trust can develop organically.

This means naturally, as a boss, you start by allowing your own trust to build with down-liners by not watching over every minutiae of their work. You must permit your team to show that they are capable.

But employees, do remember the dire consequences you will find yourself in when your leaders have acted honourably while giving you the requisite trust and freedom, and you deceive them.

Trust at the workplace is a fundamental building block of any organisation. It’s so important that it makes or breaks the culture of a group of people in your company.

Yet, despite the realisation of how important it is, many people take a lackadaisical attitude towards trust.

It is one of most difficult attributes to measure and takes a delicate balancing act to maintain. Building trust requires reliability, conscientiousness and effort. But it takes only one act on your part to burn it to ashes.

In his book The Speed of Trust, the world-renowned Stephen R. Covey describes trust quite unpretentiously.

“Simply put, trust means confidence. The opposite of trust — distrust — is suspicion. When you trust people, you have confidence in them — in their integrity and their abilities. When you distrust people, you are suspicious of them — of their integrity, their agenda, their capabilities or their track record. It’s that simple.”

How can your organisation, company, relationships, and even friendships succeed through the barrier of suspicion? I have no doubt that you can never become successful without trust.

To define trust, you must examine deeper emotional responses.

If you are an employee, you want to feel that your leaders are on “your side”, that you are treated fairly with respect and setbacks will be worked through without negative consequences.

But the irony is that these same emotions above are exactly what leaders feel, too.

When your team trusts you, they will have confidence in your decisions. And when bosses trust employees, they stop interfering and controlling. It is the busiest two-way street that you will walk on in your entire career.

As an employer, you have to align your words and actions. This is the key pillar for trust in the workplace and, ultimately, for an establishment’s success. The same goes for employees.

Workers look at what leaders say and do, and this has the biggest impact on their perception of their company. If you ask your team to do something or require them to behave in a particular way, you must first be willing and able to do the same.

For instance, when I started my restaurant, I knew that I could cook and handle an industrial kitchen. But before I asked my kitchen crew to do or act in a precise manner, I showed it to them through my actions and example.

When there is a disconnect between a leader’s words and actions, employees are less likely to become engaged and committed. Your actions matter the most. If you are leader, and you want your teams’ trust and engagement, then make sure you act accordingly. If you are an employee and you want your leader to have confidence in you, get your head screwed on right and show them that you are worthy of that trust.

Starting with the leader, it takes involvement at every level to create a deep bond of believability that motivates employees to put forth the effort needed to make your business, enterprise or company effective and produce results.

If you are a boss, have you acted in a way that is inspirational and aspirational to your team?

If you are an employee, are you trustworthy?

The writer is managing consultant and executive leadership coach at EQTD Consulting. He is also the author of the national bestseller ‘So, You Want To Get Promoted?’

When there is a disconnect between a leader’s words and actions, employees are less likely to become engaged and committed.