Trust and Culture
Steve Jobs said: “Do what you believe is great work. The only way to do great work, is to love what you do.”
What does it actually mean for the average employee to "love what you do"? Do most companies get this right?
Most companies have a focus on results, without understanding what drives the behavior. This is a common mistake that corporates make.
We are so consumed by achieving the results that we sometimes forget that there are real people, with families, mortgages, feelings, and imperfections that drive the execution of these results. Often, this leads to a culture of every-man-for-himself.
Lots of businesses operate in this way, and it seems to work for most for a limited time, but when the going gets tough, businesses like these will find that their best people leave and that their businesses start performing poorly.
Why do the best people leave?
Research shows that a lot of competent people leave their positions, due to the poor relationship they have with their manager, trust issues etc. Why is this so? I believe that in most cases, the company's culture is the issue.
People generally want their lives to mean something. If they work at a place where they don’t feel this, they will leave, and unfortunately, the best ones will leave first, because they are usually more intelligent and in tune with their inner self.
When a company has invested considerable time and energy in a person, this seems to be a very wasteful way of managing scarce and valuable resources.
This gives rise to some difficult questions:
- Are we really focusing our attention on the best possible aspects of our competitive edge?
- Is there something we are missing in the process?
- Have we made a big enough effort in understanding what our ACTUAL values are and do these values align with what we put on our web site and in the lobby?
Trust is the biggest driver of business value
Most people understand that they need to deliver a result. Our challenge as leaders is to identify the behaviours we want, and create a culture where people feel safe and trusted, so that they can bring their passion and creativity to work, and not just their brains and bodies.
Since this deals with soft, mushy concepts like trust, desire, and motivation, companies tend to avoid it. It is difficult to know what the right thing is to measure, and therefore these metrics are ignored by most corporates.
I believe however that in this day and age, given our current market reality, it is absolutely vital that we get this right; it is the one thing that will set us apart from the competition.
People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. The goal is not to do business with people who want what you have, the goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe. - Simon Sinek
A culture has to be authentic and relevant to make a connection with a client. When a culture is authentic and relevant, trust emerges. A high trust environment has a measurable effect on the speed and cost of delivery of services.
You can affect human behavior in one of two ways:
- Manipulation - Fear, bribery, aspirational, novelty – This is stressful for both buyer and seller and breeds no loyalty
- Inspiration – Apple, Southwest Airlines, Virgin, NextJump. People don’t necessarily buy Apple laptops because of the specs; they buy them because of what Apple believes. People tattoo the Harley Davidson corporate logo on their arms, not necessarily because it’s the best bike around, but because they believe in the values that the brand stands for.
How people perceive trust or the lack thereof
- There is a big difference between repeat business and loyalty.
- Inspired people feel safe, are more willing to take risks, and deliver better results.
- We are constantly told to love our clients, but who loves us?
A low trust environment makes people retract and watch out for themselves. In an environment like that, people don’t volunteer their help. Everybody is “busy”, but not really very productive.
People focus more on covering their backs, instead of putting themselves “out there”. This makes the workplace very lonely, with the residual impact of feeling unfulfilled by the work that one does. This is when people start posting their CV’s online.
People would generally prefer to be in an environment where they feel loved and trusted. This brings out the best in them.
People would put themselves at great risk for their company if they believed that the company would put itself at great risk for them, but companies don’t. So people don’t.
People inherently understand trust and loyalty. If a company starts acting and a trustworthy and loyal way, people will respond.
How can a company change its ways?
- Find out what it believes about itself and the world it operates in, why it believes it, and consistently communicate this belief.
- Create a trusting/caring culture, based on this belief, that is authentic and relevant.
- Have the belief soak through every fibre of the organization.
- Consistently act in a way that mirrors the belief.
- Create an environment where people firstly feel safe, and secondly accountable.
- Ensure that there is a very clear alignment between belief, intent and execution.
Conclusion
Daniel Pink puts culture in a mathematical equation:
GROWTH + PURPOSE = TRUE WEALTH, where GROWTH represents constant improvement of oneself, PURPOSE represents the higher personal need of helping others succeed, and TRUE WEALTH meaning long-term sustained happiness for everyone involved, including shareholders. This sounds to me like a great way to work and live.