“Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships. When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective.” – Stephen Covey
Building trust as a leader is crucial for effective communication, collaboration, and overall team success. Let’s explore some key principles and strategies for fostering trust in your leadership role.
The Importance of Trust
Trust serves as the bedrock for healthy working relationships. When team members trust their leader, they are more likely to cooperate, share information, and work effectively together. Here are some reasons why trust matters:
- Smooth Operations: Trust helps organisations run smoothly by promoting positivity, improving processes, and driving individual and team performance.
- Attracting Talent: Leaders who trust their teams gain a strong reputation as impactful leaders attracting and retaining better-qualified people for roles.
- Industry Reputation: Organisations with low internal trust levels are often not trusted by the public either, affecting their reputation and consumer trust.
Seven Fundamentals for Building and Earning Trust
- Openness: Transparency is the cornerstone of trust. Be honest, admit mistakes, and encourage open communication. When you own up to errors, it demonstrates authenticity and builds trust.
- Bestow Trust: Fill the Trust Glass at the outset – the vast majority of people will rise to your expectation of them. If you focus on testing people’s trustworthiness you may damage their confidence. Be wise though – have conversations, with integrity, if problems emerge.
- Effective Communication: Provide clarity to your team. Regularly share expectations, give feedback (and *feedforward), and ensure everyone understands their roles. Clarity fosters trust. *Click here to read our blog on feedforward.
- Timely Decision-Making: Empower and support team members to make decisions. When decisions are yours to make, make informed decisions, promptly, when appropriate. Demonstrating competence and confidence reassures employees and strengthens trust.
- Integrity: Align your actions with your *values. “Walking the talk” shows congruence and builds trust. *Read our Blogs on living your values and excelling as leader here and on the power of core values for leadership here.
- Consistency: Be reliable and consistent in your behaviour. Do what you say you will do. Be trustworthy.
- Validation and Appreciation: Recognise and appreciate your team’s efforts. Show respect for their work, which validates their contributions and reinforces trust.
Remember, trust requires consistent effort and genuine interactions. As a leader, prioritise trust-building to create a positive and productive work environment.
If you sense there’s more to achieve, if you desire to elevate your leadership and magnify your impact, and you’d like coaching support, then we invite you to reach out to us at info@mojoforleaders.com. We’ll be delighted to help you.
Information:
Elevate Executive Coaching Programmes or our Focus Topic Based Coaching Options
Additional Resources on Trust
- ‘Good Leadership – It All Starts with Trust’. Stephen M.R. Covey: Author of “The Speed of Trust,” Covey emphasises the importance of trust in personal and organisational success. He outlines practical principles for leaders to build and maintain trust within their teams and organizations.
Believes passionately that coaching and facilitating are catalysts for action and self-accountability – igniting enthusiasm, creativity, energy, and focus. She is inspired by the insights, courage, and capacity of clients as they connect with their inner confidence and initiate actions to achieve their visions. Betty adopts a collaborative, solution-focused, results-oriented process, tapping the clients’ positive energy and inner wisdom, facilitating the enhancement of personal insight, life experience, and goal attainment.
