Organisations that are serious about having a strong workplace culture should make building trust in teams a business priority. An employer’s success in motivating team members to do their best work will be heavily reliant upon on whether there is trust between leaders and workers.
When trust is missing, workplace culture can become toxic resulting in poor performance, issues with employee behaviour, turnover, infighting and a lack of commitment. Trust is built from the top down and when done well it positively influences workplace relationships, collaboration and even assists in the ability to solve complex problems.
Micromanagement is one of the fastest ways to remove trust from the employee relationship. When the leader feels the need to direct and oversee every aspect of the employee’s workday, it can have a profoundly negative impact. Employees who experience micromanagement usually feel that their leader does not trust them and the relationship begins to fracture.
If employees are told to ask questions or share their concerns, but they know that there are repercussions for doing so – the workgroup become silenced. Fear amongst employees is one of the fastest ways to impact success as workers would rather remain silent and disengaged, than speak their truth and be their authentic selves at work.
Some leaders have built careers on telling employees what they believe they want to hear rather than the truth. Of course it is tough to admit that losing a key client may mean a loss of jobs, but employees will have greater trust in a leader that is authentic and shows vulnerability in difficult times. Sugar coating bad news leads to trust being broken in the employment relationship.
Many organisations believe they have been thorough in establishing policies and practices in their business – only to discover that some employees feel ‘suffocated’, by all the rules. Whilst many policies are critical and need to remain, perhaps it is time to remove some of the ‘school’ based rules that don’t compromise safety and learn to trust and empower employees to use their skills and experiences to make decisions.
A leader that misses meeting appointments, is regularly late and does not follow through on actions quickly loses the trust of their team. This poor behaviour plants the seed of doubt in employees and leaves them always wondering when they are going to be let down. Employees instinctively lose trust which fundamentally changes the workplace culture.
A key enhancement for trust is when leaders start to connect and engage with employees on a personal level. In larger organisations, it can be challenging to remember the names of employees let alone what is important to them – but when people feel like they don’t matter; it weakens the trust and the culture.
If you expect employees to trust you – they need you to be a role model and display the behaviours and actions that you want to see in them. If you do the opposite of what you have asked of the team, employees will lose faith and will not be inclined to do what is asked of them.
If you are the sort of leader that likes the sound of your own voice – you are sending a clear message that you don’t care about the thoughts and ideas of your team. Dominating meetings and conversations demonstrates hierarchy and fails to lead with inclusion. This will result in employees not feeling valued, losing respect and not trusting trust their leader.
Every leader makes mistakes and it is important that there is the courage to admit when mistakes have been made. Showing this vulnerability normalises leaders and builds trust as employees know that their leader will be upfront with them. It is also important to get in front of employees as much as possible. Leading behind closed doors makes workers feel isolated and that there is something to be concerned about.
It is important to take a step back from a culture that ‘blames and shames’ employees for mistakes. When organisations are more concerned about who made the mistake – rather than how the team can learn from it, the culture becomes toxic. Tracking mistakes and overlooking triumphs is a missed opportunity that can lead to employees being fearful to even try. It can be tempting to become defensive when an issue emerges, however it is critical that the leader approaches the problem with curiosity and a willingness to work with team members to find a solution.
Trust is more than a series of actions – it takes commitment from everyone. It can be challenging for some leaders to trust their team members and it can certainly be difficult for workers to trust their leaders. The first step to achieving a trust culture is to have the tough conversations about any toxic behaviours and work collaboratively to achieve a culture where fear is eliminated and replaced by authenticity, transparency and honesty.
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Georgina is Senior Content Writer and HR Specialist – Publications at Ai Group. She is an accomplished Human Resource professional with over 25 years of generalist and leadership experience in a broad range of industries including financial services, tourism, travel, government and agriculture. She has successfully advised and partnered with senior leaders to implement people and performance initiatives that align to business strategy. Georgina is committed to utilising her experience to create resources that educate and engage and is passionate about supporting members to optimise an inclusive workforce culture that drives performance.
