When it comes to teams, trust the process

Trust in the workplace is an interesting concept. Employees' loyalty to their employers has drastically shifted. According to Stats Can, since 2020, the average tenure of a Canadian worker has gone down by almost 5%. Terms like ‘quiet quitting’ and ‘working your wage’ have picked up popularity with the younger generation in response to burnout, lack of work/life flexibility, and stressors around cost of living. It is not hard to understand why Millennials and Gen-Z switch jobs every few years. Maybe it’s a long overdue response to a shift in power from the employer to the employee.?

How can we expect people to put their trust in their employer when, until the pandemic, conversations around mental health and employee wellbeing were never brought up? Not only that but how can we expect people to trust their employers in a time of mandating staff to come to the office, remote productivity monitoring, and constant headlines about layoffs?

?Keeping employee morale high and focusing on employee retention should be the number one issue to solve for all leaders.? People are not replaceable; attrition doesn’t mean an opportunity to “upgrade”; and your business objectives won’t matter much unless there is a strong team to deliver on them.??

The key is trust. Organizations need to start taking ownership of their role when it comes to creating a trusting relationship with employees. Starting from the top down, leadership must incorporate these three actions that will foster a more trustworthy relationship with their employees.?

1. Aim for gradual authenticity

To be authentic, you need to start with your guard down. That is the opposite of what we typically see from people in positions of power. They are the knowers of all and are rarely seen slipping up or unpolished. But that’s not reality. The pandemic broke down the barrier between your personal and professional life. Kids crawling on us during meetings, casual dress, and a sneak peek into people’s homes that we otherwise never would have seen. We became humans and not just colleagues. Just because we are back in the office doesn’t mean that should go away. Share personal accomplishments, have a bad hair day, show the mess in your background, times of failure and how you bounced back and be honest when you’re not feeling at your best. By doing this, you’re showing people that you are bringing your whole self to work and that they are safe to do the same.?

2. Find trust-building moments

Trust comes from repeated moments of authenticity and vulnerability. I like to say that teams that vent together, grow together. When you’re collectively worked up about a situation or trying to tackle a problem, you are meeting on a level playing field. One of the simplest ways to foster these moments is through the power of “I don’t know”. When you say, I don’t know, you are showing vulnerability and opening up space for problem-solving together. If you are a leader who knows everything, no one will ever feel like they can step up to the plate to add value. Next time you have a collaboration session, take a sideline seat and show your team how much you’re learning from what they have to say. I promise this will accelerate their trust in you faster than always providing the answers.?

3. Take accountability?

If you make a promise, keep it. It’s that simple. It only takes one time of breaking that promise for all the trust that you’ve built to come crumbling down. A common conversation right now is around future stability within the company. If this comes up in a conversation, transparency is key and never over-promise. If you make a promise that no one is getting laid off and it ends up happening, you will see a stronger reaction than if you gave the facts that you have to share in a way that is clear and straightforward. Ongoing consistency of accountability will create loyalty to your word and your intention for your team and it proves to people that trust in you is a good choice.?

We’ve all heard the saying that people leave managers not companies. This all comes down to the trust leaders are building with their teams. However, trust isn’t built overnight. We expect the people that we hire to be loyal and to deliver high-quality work, but what have we offered them in return? In times of uncertainty and declining motivation, leaders have an obligation to build trust by being authentic and creating moments where their team can see that they have their best intentions at heart. Once trust is achieved, employees can unlock their full potential which will in turn create more pathways of opportunity for them to flourish.?