Trust - Born With or Developed ?

Trust is defined as ‘a psychological state comprising the intention to accept vulnerability based upon positive expectations of the intentions of behavior of another’ (Rousseau et al 1998). 

When we look at the academic literature on leadership and trust, we see many propositions on what leaders should do in order to build trust, or to increase the willingness of their followers to make themselves vulnerable.

What often stays neglected in previous research and studies of this kind is how trustworthy leaders and their endeavours to build trust are actually experienced by the people around them, most often their direct line reports as well as their colleagues, or ‘360s’ as we refer to them in this study.

Previous studies such as the one by Whitener and colleagues (1998) propose that leaders should engage in five categories of behaviors in order to build trust with their employees. Similarly, Gillespie and Mann (2004) suggest that team members have higher trust levels in their leaders if they engage in a range of actions.

Leadership behaviours for building trust :

• Behavioural consistency: behaving consistently over time and situations to increase predictability
• Behavioural integrity: consistency between words and deeds, or ‘walking the talk’
• Sharing and delegation of control: engaging in participatory decision-making with followers
• Communication: communicating in a way that involves accurate information, explanations for decisions and openness
• Demonstration of concern: showing consideration, acting in a way that protects employees’ interests, not exploiting others
• Consulting team members when making decisions
• Communicating a collective vision Exhibiting shared values 

Source: Whitener et al 1998, Gillespie and Mann 2004

‘As a leader, … you know, sometimes saying things that people don’t want to hear is actually the best thing to do in terms of actually just putting all the cards on the table.’ 

 Most employees value being consulted and receiving open communication from their leaders. Often openness is interpreted as a sign of integrity. Consideration for the opinion of others and making their voice heard in the future of the organisation is seen as a demonstration of the leader’s concern for their employees. Both are perceived to be important by our participants in order to build trust relations: 

‘The fastest way to lose people’s trust is not doing what you say. Or expecting people to do something that you wouldn’t do yourself.’ 

Another important aspect of building trust is the importance of relationships in their experiences. Importantly, this can only be achieved by not only continuously building relationships but by developing a relational mindset which puts relationships at the center of what leaders do.

This relational mindset becomes apparent in various ways when leaders talk about their behaviours.

Many emphasize the need to physically ‘go and meet’ their teams, rather than staying in their imagined ivory towers.

This is important because employees want to see their leaders in action and interact with them personally. At the same time by meeting their employees, leaders are able to ‘hear’ and ‘learn’ from them directly, which is essential in creating a collaborative and distributive style of leadership in which employees feel valued and listened to.

Obviously you would ask yourself :

• Why is trust important in organisations?
• What are the organisational benefits that can be achieved when a space of trust is created?

Here are a few benefits that accrue incrementaly:

? higher employee engagement and commitment

? feeling empowered

? positive work climate

? information-sharing and knowledge exchange

? co-operation and problemsolving

? operational efficiency

? reduced cost due to higher productivity and lower turnover

? increased individual, group and organisational performance.

In addition to these the other interesting benefits of high-trust relations.

? feeling of safety

? feeling of pride

? feeling of inclusion. 

While leaders should seek to build trust with those around them, so that employees need to be willing to trust those who lead them.

Some will have a higher propensity to trust.

Most often, trust is a mutual effort that will require courage from both parties.

Trust cannot be gained overnight. It will take time and continuous effort from both sides.

Most importantly, it will ask that both leaders and followers recognize and appreciate each other as human beings who develop personal relationships.