TRUST is the leadership test in 2022

COVID-19 might be over soon. Or not. But the pandemic already has imposed trust-related expectations on the top management of every single company across the globe. Different mindsets and new abilities are required for each crisis stage—and the future.

In a crisis, trust leads to higher resilience. People who trust their leaders are more likely to accept changes, commit to change, and take risks because they feel their leaders have their best interests in mind.

Organizations with a high level of trust benefit from speedier decision-making and increased efficiency, information exchange, and creativity. If you had these assets in your grab bag before the crisis began, you are more likely to do well than others whose trust grab bag is somewhat light. However, this Dutch adage captures the paradox of trust: trust arrives on foot but departs on horseback. Trust cannot be developed during a crisis; it must be built beforehand. Organizations may lose confidence instantly, and restoring trust takes a long time, as Volkswagen, BP, Facebook, and others have discovered.

I see trust becoming a significant aspect of inefficiency more frequently, starting at the board level and down to the bottom of the pyramid. When you see the need for more layers of control, more triple checkings, more layers of management involved in decision-making, more meetings, and less transparency, far more aggressivity than honest opinions, there is a lack of trust.?

Why do individuals choose to believe in each other? Let’s use the?framework created by Mayer et al.?and?expanded upon by Dietz and Den Hartog. They argue that we determine whether someone or something is trustworthy based on whether we perceive them to be capable at their job; whether they are benevolent toward others in their activities and decisions; whether we perceive them to have integrity; and whether we can see all three of these attributes over time in a consistent manner so that we perceive predictability in their actions and behaviors.

The worldwide pandemic has thrown the system into a loop, and it may cause seismic upheavals in the corporate world. The fact is that TRUST is a key element to be taken care of within employers, clients, investors, suppliers, partners, regulators, communities, social groups.?

Companies and their leaders need to rebuild and resignify TRUST urgently, at all levels.

Starting from the top: Board and C-Suite

In the early phases of the pandemic, leaders had to make decisions with little information, with urgency, and trust and empower local management to make swift judgments. Some decided to centralize the power to deal with the crisis; others gave it up ultimately to make sure things would happen quicker. Leaders had to make massive layoffs while others accelerated the business transformation. In all those cases, trust wasn't the priority. Throughout the first stage, ability and compassion were critical for preserving credibility. And a constant search for trade-offs between various stakeholder groups.

The health issue has morphed into an economic and social disaster. Moreover, companies face new challenges trying to implement new work models still under construction. Or even more challenging: trying to be back to the normal we knew in 2019. Those topics deeply affect the trust in leadership.

What are the main factors for the trust issue?

●???Command and control mindset all over again:?Although many companies had evolved using more agile processes and governance, the crisis might have increased an antiquated mindset. Some companies decided to go back to the office model to control what the employees do, and they know that. The lack of trust in them generates a lack of confidence in their leaders.

●???Benevolence of your brand:?Consumers are watching what your company is doing about COVID and its impacts on communities. They are even watching how you choose to manage the company.

●???Integrity inside and outside: how companies plan to deal with the situation quickly, transparently, and courteously. They aimed to portray the feeling of justice that guided their harsh judgments.

●???Predictability: leaders are expected to behave consistently, with no surprises, and anticipate what comes next. They should build a bridge to the future in workers' minds by demonstrating that there remained a continuity of values or purpose even amid the upheaval, sometimes drawing on their historical origins to illustrate how they inspired the future vision.

●???Part of the team: now more than ever before, companies don't need heroes; they need great teams. Employees expect senior leadership to be part o a team, trust their counterparts, and support the group as a whole.

Is COVID-19 a test of goodness and integrity? Technology has made it easier for workers at various levels to communicate with one another. As a result, leaders can look more approachable, humanistic, and empathic. Lower-level employees and C-suite executives have suddenly revealed intimate details about their homes and lifestyles with one another.?

New qualities required of a trustworthy leader

It will need ambidexterity across top teams, combining the capacity to make cutbacks that prevent the firm from reacting to volatility with new business models and innovation.

New cultures will arise as a result of new methods of functioning. As with any cultural transformation, there will need to be reinvestment in making things function for everyone and restoring various bases of trust and kindness in the future. Continue to put money into new types of engagement and trust-building.

There is a new challenge for compassion. We have recognized the range of links inside every business's ecosystem, especially for more prominent organizations. Many are the economic supplier for single-industry communities, the financier of educational opportunities for the next generation, and the cash flow underwriter for several small- to medium-sized local businesses in their supply chains.?

How can leaders preserve their credibility when leading in a fog? In short, senior teams' skills and competency will be measured by their prior experience and their capacity to build new sustainable environments for their organizations. Decision-making and vision will be essential. Learning to absorb new knowledge and learning while working continually will be crucial skills, as will building and negotiating with the large ecosystem in which the organization is situated. Necessary action will advocate for and exemplify the value of healthy physical and mental health.

Not avoiding difficult conversations and not over-promising will assist keep the senior team's credibility in the eyes of its stakeholders—do people desire painful facts or comfortable lies? It is also critical to include the follower in the new leadership relationship. Make it clear what the followers' responsibilities are.

Everyone in a high-trust organization has responsibility for maintaining that trust. Finally, consistency in purpose, values, and senior leadership behaviors will predict this extremely unpredictable environment.?