Trust Powers Productivity and Reveals Gaps

Trust fuels productivity. The key to having a productive organization is having a trusting organization.

  • Trust says:  “I think you are smart enough to know what to do and how to do it, and if you screw up, I think you’ll tell me and then fix it.”
  • Trust says:  “If there is a gap between what I expect and what I experience, I believe you’re smart enough to know how to fix it and tell me if you are not”.

That is the true culture of trust and when it’s established, it’s contagious.

It’s equally important to recognize what trust is not.

  • Trust is not a culture where team members are constantly trying to figure out what the leader would do.
  • Trust is not trying to please your boss. Trust requires teams to spend time doing what is best for the organization. In a culture of trust, employees are hired because they are trusted to get the job done. If mistakes are made, they are trusted to take ownership and fix them.

A culture of trust attracts trustworthy people. The secret to driving out untrustworthy people is to trust them. By assuming the best, the quicker people who aren’t the best will surface. This may seem counterintuitive, but by micromanaging and harboring an untrustworthy culture, the longer untrustworthy people can hide. Great people don’t want to work in this type of environment. Great, trustworthy people want to work in an environment where they are trusted to get the job done and take ownership of their mistakes.

In a quote from the book by Jim Collins, “How the Mighty Fall”, he writes “The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you might have made a hiring mistake.” If this problem is not addressed first and foremost, it may result in a culture of distrust in the team and the organization.

Repurposed from Leadercast