Trust really matters. If a manager of yours cannot have an open conversation with you, make sure that the color of that flag you are seeing is red. Don’t try to convince yourself that it is white, green, or any other color, because the effects can be disastrous! The key to turning that flag back to a color you would prefer is trust.
Trust is vital in any organization because without trust, dysfunction begins to take hold. This makes the organization inefficient and less effective, and the ripple effect can cause much damage throughout the organization. When trust is the cornerstone of the organization, however, much dysfunction can be avoided, making the organization more effective and aligned.
What trust looks like
When we say that we trust someone, we are often referring to a trust based on the fact that we know how they are and how they will do things or react. This is a trust built over time as the people on a team get to know each other. In a word, it is a trust based on past experience.
While this kind of trust is essential, this is not the trust that is necessary for building great organizations. Leaders need to foster a trust based on vulnerability. This ultimately gives them permission to be themselves (sounds strange they need this “permission,” doesn’t it?) so that they never, ever, ever hold back.
So why is that so important? Ryan Pendell of Gallup published an article called Do Your Managers Lack Courage?. The article describes the dysfunction that ensues when managers try to please both their leaders and their teams. When this happens, political games get underway, and the organization becomes less efficient and effective.
How does this dynamic work? Managers often receive directives from their leaders and then pass them down to their teams as if they were conveyor belts. They say, “Well, the people upstairs are asking for this…we just have to get it done.” Their teams become resentful of their leaders (and their managers for not sticking up for them), their productivity and morale tanks, and they become bitter. We have heard the phrase over and over again that “people don’t leave organizations, they leave their managers.” Hmmm…could this be part of the reason why?
What’s trust got to do, got to do, with it?
Obviously, Tina Turner’s song doesn’t go like that. Still, we might wonder how trust can be connected to productivity, morale, turnover, and, ultimately, the bottom line!
Leaders need to create a culture of trust so that their managers feel comfortable saying what they have on their minds. Managers are on the ground with their teams, and they generally have a good idea of their workload and how they are doing. They must not feel pressured to say an unconditional yes! to anything the leader asks of them! What I am not suggesting here is that anybody can do whatever they want. The point is that good communication helps leaders get the bigger picture of what is going on.
Trust is built by being vulnerable. And vulnerability must start with the leader. If a leader is not vulnerable, the managers will not follow. When you are vulnerable as a leader, it sends an unambiguous message to your people: this is how I am leading. This is also the best way you can be around here, and this is how to lead your direct reports.
What’s more, leaders who adopt this type of behaviour gain an incredible amount of credibility amongst managers because they are seen as human beings, just like them. And not just someone in a far-away office upstairs.
Here are four practical ways that leaders can be vulnerable. It shows managers that they can be free to speak their minds and also be vulnerable, open, and honest:
- Ask your managers how they are doing and how they see the workload of their teams. This sends a signal that you care about them. Really.
- Ask them periodically for feedback. By leading with vulnerability and listening to what your managers have to say, they will be more likely to say something when there’s an issue and not pretend that everything is okay.
- Tell them that you understand how difficult it can be to be caught in the middle but that this can be made a lot easier when there is good communication.
- If you make a mistake with them, admit it to them. This is not a sign of weakness; it is a sign of being human. The managers’ trust in you will grow in leaps and bounds.
But isn’t this stuff too soft?
“But come on? Can’t we just get on with it and get our work done? I don’t have any time for this soft stuff!” This is a widespread objection, and it has some foundation. We have all been through those stereotypical trust exercises, such as falling backward blindfolded, only to have to return to work from the offsite with more work and stress than before.
Being able to be vulnerable with each other is that it does tie into getting real work done. If your managers can speak up, things could get done faster and cheaper:
- When there is good communication, alignment improves
- Managers don’t have to spend their days playing political games, but they can get actual work done
- Politics saps energy and leads to low morale, low productivity, and high turnover
- High turnover sets an organization back, and hefty training costs (in time and money) are incurred
So trust is very practical!
What about trust on the leadership team?
The higher up you go in the organization in building trust, the further and more in-depth the positive effects of trust will go. Just imagine what would happen if the leadership team creates a climate of trust among themselves; they will be able to credibly cascade this habit down throughout the rest of the organization. They send a message saying, “It is okay to be who you are around here. We have hired you because we think you are valuable and that you can contribute, and we don’t want you to hold back.”
When a leadership team is comfortable being open and honest with each other (once again, starting with the leader), they can engage in healthy constructive conflict around important issues. And they can do this without worrying about how what they share will be perceived by others on the team. When this happens, because everybody has had the real chance to weigh in, team members usually feel like they can commit to a common course of action.
With real commitment to a clear decision by all the members of the team comes accountability. Team members can hold each other accountable for what they had decided, without anybody sabotaging the team because they didn’t get a chance to contribute to the discussion. With accountability, the team can focus on how well the team is doing collectively by looking at the results.
You can have the best strategy and the best product in the world. Yet, the way people work together in the organization determines the results. And all of this starts with trust.
