Trust is a valuable commodity within any team. Have you ever had to tell one of your team members “just trust me”? If so, think about that situation. What were the circumstances? Why do you think your trust was in question? Can you even ask for trust?
When we think about trust, we also think about culture. Have you ever worked in an environment where there was a culture of mistrust? If so, you most likely experienced a workplace where people were unreliable, disloyal, unable to communicate openly, and prone to low productivity. In addition, low morale and high stress are the results of low-trust teams. When you improve trust among colleagues, teams of people take ownership of their responsibilities, help each other, congratulate each other for quality work, communicate more openly, and are more productive.
So, how do you build trust?
In this first installment of our three-part series on how to build trust, we will look at credibility. The other two articles will focus on insight and passion. Built on the CrossGroup Leadership Model, trust has three major components: predictability (credibility), competence (insight), and subjective goodwill (passion). All of these focus on you as a leader. You have the ability to influence others in positive ways as you build these qualities into your life and practice.
Earning Credibility
Credibility is all about your character. Are you perceived as a character or a person of character? Character describes what a person is and what a person does.
As we take ownership of ourselves, we begin to look deeply into our actions and the thoughts that generate these actions. Do your everyday practices demonstrate that you are trustworthy?
Credibility is earned when we demonstrate integrity. Broadly, integrity means we show honesty, follow-through, reliability, and authenticity.
Honesty shines through when we tell the truth without “spin.” We share the truth with our co-worker without “spinning” a tale that we hope makes sense. We tell the truth about ourselves. We tell the truth about our circumstances. We share our strengths and yes, even our weaknesses. We allow the truth to be shared with us. This means we encourage the giving and receiving of feedback with graciousness and candor. Does this mean brutal honesty? No, we can be honest and kind at the same time. As we tell the truth, it makes us believable and trustworthy.
Follow-through is a necessary ingredient to our team. Our actions must follow our words. This means that we must make and keep promises. I find that people don’t make real promises and commitments very often. We say things like: “I’ll try to . . . ” or “I might do . . .” When we don’t follow through, we must genuinely apologize and redeem ourselves with remedial action in a timely fashion.
Reliability is similar in that true leaders are dependable. They help and support their co-workers. Effective leaders can be counted on even in difficult times.
Authenticity is about transparency and being genuine. We demonstrate this by being open to ideas and suggestions with humility. We understand that we don’t own all the truth. We need each other to more fully understand ourselves and the challenges or solutions that surround us. Show who you are. Don’t just play a workplace role. Be yourself!
One final note concerning credibility is to share your intentions. Examine your motives and make them selfless and enlightening. When you have a selfish motive, be genuine about that as well. People respect transparency even if it’s negative occasionally.
The goal of credibility is to be predictable with your team. They should know you well enough that they can predict your behavior to have their best interest in mind. They will not expect you to be perfect, but they do expect you to lead with integrity.
Next month, we will dive into the competence and insight side of trust.