How to win the trust of your team (clue: it has to start with you)

This article was written in response to a genuine challenge from a member of my leadership community; winning trust in your team is a common theme that I see in my role as an High-Stakes Leadership Mentor, working with senior teams and leaders.

Here are my 5 steps to winning trust in your team - and if you'd like to join my community, to receive a monthly email which aims to solve a particular leadership challenge, address key concerns and valuable insights on achieving high-performance, just click here and feel free to offer up your own (confidential) leadership questions: https://lnkd.in/e4vxaxY

STEP 1:?Ditch the superhero cloak and accept that no-one is infallible - you’re only human!

One of the things my clients often struggle with before we start working together is that feeling of being overwhelmed. When you are in the driving seat of a business, with hungry mouths looking to you from all directions, it’s too easy to think you have to have all the answers because you are the CEO, Owner, MD etc.?This simply isn’t true and the sooner you stop hiding in plain sight under the excuse of being ‘too busy’ - your leadership and life will transform.?

The harsh reality is that thinking you have to be infallible is often an excuse and is used to distract from tackling your leadership growth needs. Instead, invest your precious energy and emotion in learning the art of delegation, honouring boundaries and putting your needs firmly in the centre with everyone else’s. This will help build trust on every level.

STEP 2:??Before you get too deep into 2022, have you captured the emotional and business learnings from 2021?

Being the key senior leader in a fast-paced and demanding environment means you are often hanging out in the future. Before you keep planning for 2022 and beyond, I encourage you to find the time and headspace to also reflect. By capturing in simple form both business?and?emotional learnings you can better see patterns and problems - and more importantly you can see what to do differently as a senior leader to ensure you don’t make the same mistakes going forward (it’s amazing how often this?doesn’t?happen).?

Agility is key to successful and happy leadership and going back before you go forward really oils the wheels for this. And the fewer mistakes you make, the better the environment and trust in the business will be.?

STEP 3:?Know the lens you’re looking at the world through

Trust requires action – it’s the gin to your tonic.??Show trust - and if you don’t, list 5 reasons why, and challenge if your perspective is accurate.?How can you change it??Your subconscious can be a right pain! All too often you’re operating on autopilot, both at work and at home, without really stepping back and clearly looking at the lens through which you’re seeing and experiencing your world. Are you seeing the truth through that lens?

If I’m being really honest, I know when I ran a team in my old business, I didn’t really trust them. I wanted to, but when it came to stepping back and letting them truly crack on, I simply hadn’t learnt how to delegate well (to my detriment). Because no matter how much I tried to be a great leader and support, invest in, coach and care for my team, I knew that deep down that trust was missing. Only I am accountable for that. My trust was missing because my lens was so deeply programmed to look for areas where things could go wrong and this made it pretty much impossible for me to trust, as I was always so stressed. And so the circle keeps going round.

STEP 4:??Keep your energy reserves topped up

Trust isn’t static, its constantly evolving - growing and shrinking. Like a baby, it needs your time, energy and care, so set aside time to invest in it.?Logically you know that trust is a great thing to have and you don’t need me to list the reasons why.?

I help my clients by helping them understand that greater balance and enjoyment is accessible and present in their world of work. And this takes energy. If we were to ‘lift your hood’ I bet we’d quickly see where you are leaking precious energy and where you are actively shoving it because you simply haven’t been shown how to do things differently.

Look at your diary and your ‘rhythm’ of work. How often do you and your needs show up? You and your well-being matter. It’s that simple. So show this commitment to ‘walking the walk’ of healthy working and being energised, by marking out time to invest. And no one has the right to judge how you achieve this. For some it’s the gym, for others energy is gained from being social, and for others it’s having quiet reflective time etc. Whatever gives you energy make sure you get it. No excuses.

STEP 5:??Budget

Trust is a shared experience, so what are you doing to build trust in your team??The only constant we have is that change and uncertainty are here to stay. At least for the foreseeable. Commit to developing trust and making a budget available to invest in it. You cannot buy the magic discretionary effort or emotional loyalty, but you can access, nurture, grow and retain it. Yes, it takes budget, but it doesn’t have to break the bank.

Don’t make the mistake many senior leaders do which is to hold back and then lose their best talent to a competitor to then have to spend precious budget on (often poor) new recruitment with all the risk and no guarantee of any R.O.I. How can you be clever with budget and actively use it to build trust in your team? And think about budget for you in this too.

For if you don’t fully trust yourself as a leader how can you honestly expect anyone else to?