Monday, August 9, 2010

Building and Rebuilding Trust

The platform for sustained performance in leadership is TRUST—a work environment that supports open-mindedness, respects individual integrity, and promotes empathy that builds relationships and earns trust. Stop for a moment and ask yourself – do you conduct business with people you absolutely mistrust? Unless we are in monopolistic markets or in a position where we believe we have no choice, I suspect that you answer is always an emphatic “no”. Why then do we think we can run a business or organization or get customers to buy from us when there is little or no trust?

There is a lack of confidence in today’s marketplace. Uncertainty is the norm but it does not have to breed hesitancy for action and even partnership. Doing more with less requires being able to delegate and motivate others to confidently help. No progress can be made without this fundamental value of building trust. Today fear is a constant in most environments. Fear affronts trust and creative risk taking. To be efficient, timely and productive the work environment has to be inclusive and trustworthy/ non-threatening. Trust frees a staff of time- consuming guardedness and allows the focus to be on the work at hand and on the solutions for quality and high performance.

The ability to map and understand the value created and destroyed by a lack of trust is within employee networks. Leaders reorient the networks toward revenue and productivity with shared values and trust. They also identify the places in the network where collaborative breakdowns inhibit progress. Where does it make sense to invest in training, tools and team building efforts? Start with where your business or organization is failing to perform or meet its goals.

Employees will easily accommodate change if they work in an environment of trust. The trust will breed a resiliency to lead ahead of change. Resiliency can be developed and reinforced through a consistency of response, through planning and through an understanding of behaviors. Dealing with behaviors—making them concrete and measurable is more difficult than ‘restructuring’. It also takes longer, yet the impact on the top and bottom line is powerful.

Since the market is now global, the workforce is now diverse, and technology evolves daily, a corporate culture has to respond in a timely way to the needs of these changes. Corporate culture starts with changing one person at a time, behavior by behavior. Collaborating effectively across business and national cultures is common for doing business today. The contemporary workforce and customer base profiles a diversity of background and nationality. A global leader must communicate and facilitate well the interactions of these distinct communities.

How do the institutions teach trust – in a practical, impactful way? Do they teach behaviors in business colleges versus the psychology department? If not, it should be presented with a focus on the values of cultural diversity. For a generation that expects special treatment, students should be reintroduced to the strategic virtues – Acceptance, Openness, Respect and Empathy. This is critical to their academic development if they are going to lead with Trust.

Structure and processes support management of an organization, BUT it is the behaviors that support or detract in the act of leadership. Clear, current communication of processes and the ever-evolving business plan are a valued resource to support staff, with little cost. When verbal behaviors are identified and quantified they become a guideline for ‘how to’ influence and ultimately build trust. It is an actual behavioral plan for leadership—meeting, presenting and negotiating. Building trust replaces uncertainty with confidence, and half-truths with transparency.

The global marketplace suffered together—now together we can grow and succeed. This is a time for fostering global leadership—a time to build relationships that transcend exclusivity and invite diversity. There has never been a better time to build trust.