Creating the trust on leadership
One of the important factors we need to think about is improving the trust capital in the organisation (please read Vinod Bidwaik : Trust Capital). However, leaders may have different opinions on how to create trust. Role modelling is missing and their limited understanding about the business and human capital is creating challenges within organisations. In fact the major weakness is they don’t know what exactly trust means. Most of the time, expectations are just to follow leaders without challenging their thought process. Lack of alignment from employees point of view is also the lack of trust on the leader. This is based on the experience employees get during the interaction with leaders. If employees don’t trust the leaders, it also means that employees are not engaged and aligned to the larger purpose. You will not see the impact short term. People still may work, achieve their results, or may just do what is told or expected, but the impact is long term.
Leaders must also act as a guide in the midst of uncertainty. The high call of trusted leaders is to give as much clarity as possible during the VUCA world. Your fastest opportunity to build trust is in times of crisis and recovery, but it is also the time you can lose it most quickly. People don’t follow the leaders they don’t trust.
When trust in teams goes up, people feel safe and valued so they are willing to share ideas and praise, which in turn leads to increased innovation and productivity. Trust builds psychological safety.
How to improve trust in leadership?
Relationships: Networking and building relationships across the organisation is crucial nowadays. Relationships are primarily based on the emotional connections between employees and leaders. Sometimes title, position, poor listening skills, attitude, aggression and micro management keeps away employees from the manager. Sometimes, leaders have the blind spot of their behaviours, like managers spending more time with one team member can create the wrong perceptions in other team members. Perhaps the manager may have more stakes in the role of that person or it may be his favourite area and s/he may be doing it unintentionally but people perceive it differently. Even managers and employees living in the same area and if they are carpooling, other team members become insecure. This may lead to gossiping about the proximity between two. So as a leader, you need to build relationships so that all people get the feeling of equality.
Clarity in communication: Communication is effective when you understand the next person. Trusted leaders speak from the heart. First they understand the audience and then decide their strategy to communicate. They demonstrate empathy and are effective in listening. It is not about showing what knowledge you have but being vulnerable and asking the right questions and saying, “I don’t know,” if they don’t know any subject.
Role Modelling: People trust when you walk the talk. Unfortunately nowadays, all dnyan is for others and not for leaders. Nowadays sustainability is the buzzword. Every corporate leader is speaking about reducing carbon emission and the irony is that to explain sustainability, those leaders are travelling from one continent to another. People preaching on carbon emission have lavish offices with continuous running air conditioners and with luxury cars. So role modelling is very important when you want to believe people in leadership.
Capabilities and Competencies: People will trust you when you have the functional, behavioural and leadership competencies and you are capable to manage the role you have taken. Continuous learning, being agile and relevant is the key to becoming competent. Unfortunately people speak a lot about but hardly implement in their behaviours.
In Spite of having and doing good 100% people will not trust leadership. People still have their opinions and perceptions and those are built by them based on their experiences, right or wrong, with you. However, always keep doing good work, making a positive impact in the lives of people.
Please respond the survey, I am conducting, as a part of my research by clicking on >> Leadership Competencies required for managers while handling crisis situations.
(Opinions are purely personal & does not represent my organizations, current or past)
Author's books are available on Amazon, Flipkart, Pothi and BookGanga. You can buy the print copy of Vitality in Human Resources on amazon. Click >> Vitality in Human Resource: Adding human dimensions in HR processes
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