Does this enhance or degrade trust?
Paul Zak wrote the book, Trust Factor: The Science of Creating High-Performance Companies, and conducted many studies on the power of trust in the workplace. Here’s a quick snapshot of some findings from this HBR article:
Respondents whose companies were in the top quartile indicated they had 106% more energy and were 76% more engaged at work than respondents whose firms were in the bottom quartile.
Those working in high-trust companies enjoyed their jobs 60% more, were 70% more aligned with their companies’ purpose, and felt 66% closer to their colleagues.
And perhaps the most shocking: employees earn an additional $6,450 a year, or 17% more, at companies in the highest quartile of trust, compared with those in the lowest quartile.
Zak, P. J. (2017). The neuroscience of trust. Harvard Business Review.
The results are clear: leaders who build trust will have better results than those who don’t. Most leaders know they need to build trust, but they almost never see how every action and decision they make impacts how much their employees trust them. I’ve seen countless leaders inadvertently destroy trust without even knowing it.
I’ve used this one question to help me ensure my actions aren’t inadvertently eroding trust:
Does this decision enhance or degrade trust?
Running my decisions through this filter has helped me avoid making errors I wouldn’t have even seen coming. I found this out the hard way at first, though. An employee came to me once and said, why did you fill out the Excel sheet report before I had a chance to do it this morning?
The truth was that my boss had asked for it to be ready by 8 am, and I forgot to tell my employee that it needed to be done earlier than usual. So, when I got to work, I just completed the sheet.
She came to me and was upset that I was doing her job for her. She thought that she wasn’t doing a good enough job, so I stepped in to take it over. That wasn’t the case at all. I should have gone to her and explained the situation before completing the sheet. Had I communicated this to her ahead of time, we would’ve avoided the issue altogether.
Luckily, she voiced her concern to me right away. But what if she hadn’t? I imagine she would have gotten upset and started to disengage from the work. Luckily, we had a solid relationship, and we were able to work through it, but that’s not the case for everyone.
That’s when I started looking more closely at my decisions and actions to determine whether I was building trust or destroying it in daily interactions. So, next time you’re faced with a tricky decision or unsure of how your employees will perceive your actions, think to yourself:
Will this enhance or degrade trust?
Until next time,
Rick
If you’re interested in measuring the amount of trust on your team or in your organization, check out The Leadership Audit. It’s a way to bring a rigorous qualitative research study to your organization, similar to the studies Paul Zak did, but tailored specifically to your organization and its needs.