Trust: the Glue that Keeps Everything Together at Work (and 6 Strategies to Build It!)
Trust is the foundation of meaningful human relationships, which means that trust is a essential in life and work as we live and operate in communities of people.
At work, trust is the most important component that allows effective leadership, collaboration, psychological safety, inclusion and belonging to emerge and thrive.
Of course, it is possible to get work done and achieve the results without trust, but it would only happen through the force of hierarchical power or fear, and that's neither sustainable, nor effective in the long term. Many organizations get things done by the sheer brute force of fear, control and retaliation. That's unhealthy for the organization itself, the people and even the ones who behave in such ways!
The alternative is: getting things done because people TRUST!
Trust at work is about feeling confident and secure that you are cared for in your condition as a human, before your condition as a worker. When you trust your coworkers or leaders you have the belief that they will behave in certain ways that will honor that idea of caring for you.
Stephen Covey defined trust as a "pragmatic, tangible and actionable" asset.
You don't just "feel" trust or have the "perception" that you can trust someone. You can actual "see" trust in real time. When you leaders and coworkers care for you and you for them, when you feel that you be your authentic self and feel included, when the organization communicates effectively easy and tough decisions, when there is transparency in decision-making and actions... that's trust.
How do you build trust at work? Here you have six strategies that can help.
Strategy 1: Listen and Learn
To build trust you have to listen to the employees and learn from them. In this context, listening is not a mechanism to prepare a response but to understand what people have to say. When you listen to understand you learn from them, and when you learn from them you discover new things through questions and ideas that can help build more trust and improve the organizational culture. Listen and learn!
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Strategy 2: Show Appreciation
For people to trust that you care for them they have to know that their work, in terms of efforts and outcome (not just results), is appreciated and recognized. You can't tell people that you trust them when you don't celebrate them and their work. Showing appreciation and giving people credit is a powerful to tell them that you trust them
Strategy 3: Include People
Inclusion is about employees having voice and feeling that they are heard. An inclusive leader encourages people to use their voice and inspires them to add their own uniqueness to their voice. When people feel included (which is embraced and accepted for who they are, without conditions) they can trust, because being accepted for who they are without fear of judgment and criticism is one of the highest forms of trust that can be given
Strategy 4: Act with Kindness
Kindness and compassion at work are about improving other people’s lives with authentic acts of love, generosity, care and, especially, service. Trust is, above all else, caring for people. And what a more sublime way to show that you care if not by acting with kindness and compassion toward everyone at work. Kindness and compassion must be embraced and practiced in the everyday small things tp build trust.
Strategy 5: Communicate Effectively
Communicating regularly and effectively generates an immense amount of trust. Effective communication requires empathy and respect as some messages will be good news and others won't. Empathy and respect are both the result of trust, but also build more of it. With effective communication you show people you care enough about them for them to know the truth. That's trust.
Strategy 6: Be Transparent
Transparency is above all clarity, openness and honesty, and promoting behaviors conducive to honest and trustworthy conversations among the people in the organization to openly and honestly discuss about goals, feedback, performance and more. When you embrace transparency you are sending a clear message: you trust the people and know they are deserving of information about the things that matter.
Payroll Specialist
1 年I applaud your topics. We lack population to obtain staffing in many area's of business today. Employees are less tolerant of employers who are not creating a safe work environment in all aspects. The expense of employee turnover is huge compared to 3 years ago. A healthy work environment would increase rhe bottom line. But this concept is not new. How do we get companies to take it seriously?
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1 年Very real and agree
Talent Acquisition | Talent Retention | HR Policies & Procedures | Training & Development | Industrial Relations | Employee Engagement | ERP | Compensation & Benefits | Performance Management | OSHA | HR Reporting |
1 年Insightful article
Middle Management at Joburg Property Company
1 年These strategies are great and bring some significatw changes, however if the culture is not conducive would bring about frustration where there is no buy in. Had anyone here worked or working in highly unionized work environments. My experience has been so difficult to implement even a minor change intervention let alone trying to create an inclusive environment. What has been your experience in such an environment?
??10+ Years Experience in Administration??NGO Operations??Operations Management ?? Counselling??Bookkeeping??Budgeting??Project Management?? Fundraising??Internal Audit of Transactions ??Sales & Marketing ??
1 年Good learning points, communication and being transparent are very important , if these two points are taken care, rest of the points will follow with positivity.