Trust in the leader is essential for collaborators to develop their work optimally, efficiently and dare to raise their hands, because they adopt a common purpose; however, when this is broken, workers can generate skepticism, decrease productivity and even prefer to leave the organization.
However, there is a crisis of confidence in the workplace, only 46% of leaders trust their collaborators to do the right thingreveals DDI’s 2023 Global Leadership Forecast.
“Weaving trust into the culture of the workplace is not only important for employee retention and talent creation, but also for driving innovation and success in the future,” said Buce Corte.
Although the pandemic forced organizations to work remotely and therefore trust collaborators, the reality is that not all managers have maintained good communication. Now, many companies have adopted a hybrid or remote work model and need to drive engagement.
According to the study, 49% of leaders who works in a hybrid way are committed and only a third say their work energizes them.
“Trust and visibility make a big difference for employees. In fact, research shows that hybrid employees are 4.4 times more engaged when their managers maintained trust in their relationships.”
behaviors
If your company is going through a trust crisis, don’t worry, there are seven behaviors that you can apply to regain trust. Brice Corte calls them Key Principles and they are used to meet a practical or personal need.
“For example, I visit the doctor when I need to improve; we call this practical necessity. While at the doctor’s office, I also expect to be treated with dignity and mutual respect, which is what we call personal need.”
1. Listen and respond with empathy
When a person is speaking and feels that the other is not listening, communication and trust are lost. That is why it is important that the leader listen and respond with empathy. Doing this builds confidence and performance.
2. Provide growth opportunities
Employee training is key, as it fosters employee confidence because they realize that leaders care about their development. Additionally, training new leaders is important to the organization because it helps retain talent and increase engagement.
3. Be transparent
Sharing information with co-workers, whether in good times or bad, helps build trust.
“When a leader listens to you, they respond with empathy and then follow up with statements like, ‘I understand your concern about what this means for our team and I share your concern. Let me tell you what happened to make the decision’, they share what’s on their mind and provide the rationale for why the decision was made.
4. Acknowledge your own failures
We all make mistakes and knowing how to recognize and deal with them will allow others to trust, the key to recognizing your failures is to carefully choose your behaviors when you fail. “Offering a simple and genuine apology, accepting that you made a mistake goes a long way to building trust with your team.”
5. Worry about the well-being of collaborators
Employees are the cornerstone of the company, and worrying about their well-being is important. You can start by taking a minute and asking how they are, how they are feeling, how their day has been, how is the family.
Doing these small actions can help reduce employee turnover, because they feel a sense of belonging and consequently increase trust.
6. Eliminate old ways of doing things
The change must be led by managers, because team members will see how their leader reacts to the change. A powerful way for leaders to encourage others to challenge old ways of doing things is to listen and respond with empathy, share thoughts, feelings, and reasons, followed by asking for help and encouraging participation, and finally providing support without taking away responsibility. .
7. Recognize the success of others
Celebrating employees’ achievements increases their individual productivity and makes them more likely to stay with the organization. To build trust in the workplace, any recognition must be specific and sincere.
