The Secret Ingredient to Building An Authentic Organization

While trust is central to all of our relationships, both personal and professional, how do we actually define it? According to the International Journal of Human and Social Sciences, trust is manifested through a person’s actions and reflects their core beliefs, assumptions and depth of personal commitment. Simply put, trust is a mutual understanding between people that ensures their vulnerabilities won’t be exploited and that the relationship is safe and respectful.  

When we think about business, trust isn’t necessarily the first word that comes to mind – but it should be. Frances Frei, professor of technology and operations management at Harvard Business School, is an expert on what it takes to achieve excellence in business. She knows firsthand from her work at Uber how to build trust, maintain it and rebuild it – no matter the situation.  

Brigette McInnis-Day: Why is trust the key to achieving excellence? 

Frances Frei: Trust lives at the core of all positive, enduring human relationships. It creates the emotional framework for our collective human progress. This isn’t limited to personal relationships. Trust is at the absolute center of all business relationships and is necessary to drive organizational success.  

How can leaders create an environment of trust in their organization? 

Here’s the basic formula: people tend to trust you when they believe they are seeing the real you (authenticity), when they have faith in your judgment and competence (logic), and when they believe that you understand and care about them (empathy).  

As we know, no one is absolutely trusted all of the time. When you experience this lack of trust, it can almost always be traced back to a perceived breakdown in one of the three attributes. When just one of these suffers, it can cause trust to dwindle – even if just for a short time. This idea goes all the way back to ancient texts, in which you can see echoes of this framework in pathos-logos-ethos. This pattern is also commonly present in much of modern psychology literature.  

How can technology interfere with trust? Are there any ways technology can contribute to building trust? 

The way we use technology today has the potential to undermine all three pillars of trust. We’re all guilty of it – we get absorbed by our screens rather than connecting with the people right next to us. We literally mask our true selves with Instagram filters. We broadcast questionable judgment in our tweets because we don’t have to directly confront the consequences of that action. But these are choices we make, and we can easily reverse them. Technology also has the power to break down boundaries that have historically separated us, such as geography or culture. I can assemble a meeting with colleagues in Shanghai and Dublin, and we can look each other in the eye over high-definition video and dwell in possibility together. That’s crazy powerful.  

How do cell phones specifically interfere with the creation of empathy and trust? 

Most of us turn our phones into ‘empathy killers’ by putting our heads down and essentially announcing that our own needs and desires are more important than the people around us. One of the most powerful signals leaders can send right now is to put their phones away and commit to being 100 percent present with their colleagues. It sounds simple, yet many leaders are so pressured with demands for their time that they find it extremely difficult to be fully present.  

Why is authenticity such an important quality in an effective leader? 

People are generally unwilling to be led by someone who presents as inauthentic. Our biology tells us to be suspicious, so we hesitate and keep our guard up rather than allowing ourselves to be influenced. If you find yourself wondering just how authentic you actually are, take a quick authenticity test. It’s easy. Think about how different your public persona is from the one that shows up around family and friends. Is there a significant difference? If so, you may have a fantastic opportunity to rebuild trust by bringing a more honest, more dimensional version of yourself into the workplace.  

How can businesses best help employees to be their most authentic selves? 

Celebrate differences in thinking, perspective and worldview. If you treat difference as your ultimate competitive advantage, that’s what it will become. At the end of the day, business is about relationships and all relationships require trust to thrive. Leaders are responsible for creating an environment of trust and must prioritize it to achieve organizational excellence.  

Learn more about the Human Revolution.  

Link to article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2018/11/14/the-secret-ingredient-to-building-an-authentic-organization/#3f6ddef82572