Trust.
We all want to be trusted. What we often don’t do is trust those we lead.
We hire a new employee. We begin to think of ways the employee may cheat the company.
Boom.
We’ve broken a bond of trust. The employee may not realize it.
YET.
Slowly but surely, the employee will begin to realize you don’t trust them. They will see the “guardrails” you’ve put up to keep them in line.
We talk about trust like it’s important. We don’t live it out.
Here’s 5 ways we can show that we believe in trust, and that we trust those we lead.
It All Starts With Trust
1. Listen more than you speak:
One way we show that we don’t trust those we lead is that we talk too much. We believe we’re giving the person information they need, helping them understand a process, or working them through a problem.
But there’s a problem with this.
We don’t stop to listen. We give, give, and give some more.
What we failed to do was to understand what they need. It shows we don’t understand and trust them.
Let’s stop talking so much. A popular phrase says we were given two ears and one mouth. We should listen twice as much as we speak. Let’s start doing that.
2. Take the blame:
Issues are to end with the leader. Whether a project fails, never gets off the ground, or falters somewhere along the way, the blame falls to the leader.
Too often, leaders push the blame on their team. They say that Mitch didn’t get the data, Tommy didn’t follow through, or Sami failed to present the presentation properly.
While this may be true, who didn’t lead the team well? That’s right; the answer is you.
Take the blame for when projects and initiatives fail. This shows your team that you trusted them to get things done. It also shows them that you realize you failed to support your team.
3. Give respect:
Another problem employees feel in being trusted is that they believe their leader doesn’t respect them. Sometimes this is true. Other times it is not.
We still have to learn how to give respect if we want our team members to trust us.
A lack of respect tells your people a lot of things. One of those is that they aren’t trusted.
4. Focus on output:
Do you need butts in seats or do you need output? One of the easiest ways to show trust is to allow your people to be trusted.
Ask for output, not time in seats.
When you demand people to be in seats, you tell them you don’t trust them. You tell them that their presence is required because it shows you they’re working.
Want to show trust? Allow your team to produce rather than be present.
5. Be trustworthy yourself:
The last tip I want to give you is that to trust others, you have to be trustworthy yourself. You will struggle to trust those you lead if you know you don’t keep your word. If that’s the case, why would others trust you? Why would you be able to trust others?
Work on yourself. Make yourself trustworthy.
Then, you will have an easier time trusting those you lead.
