Whenever I ask leaders, “Do your people trust you?” they usually return an incredulous look of, “Well, why wouldn’t they trust me? When I press further to ask them why they believe they are trustworthy, they return a litany of good intentions. “I try to be good to them.” “I’m straightforward with them.” “I’m a good person.” And while those intentions are certainly noble, trustworthiness is in the eye of the beholder. You’re not trustworthy because you intend to be. You’re trustworthy when others say you are.
Of all the attributes a leader could develop, few are more important than trustworthiness. This is especially true today — the 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer report found six in ten adults now feel that “their default tendency is to distrust something until they see evidence it is trustworthy.”
Despite this, perceptions toward business and employers was better than other organizations — with 77% saying they trusted their employer and 61% trusting “business” as an institution.
These findings illustrate that establishing and maintaining trust with customers, business partners, employees and others is more important than ever in today’s environment.
Why Trust Matters
Trust can have a very real impact on your company’s bottom line. Research from the Harvard Business Review reveals that when an office has high trust levels, employees are 50 percent more productive, 76% more engaged and have 74% lower stress levels than those in low-trust environments.
In complex work environments where thousands of decisions are made daily, where risk feels high and variables within choices seem endless, trust is the only antidote to keep things moving. There simply isn’t time to vet every point of view, discredit every differing perspective, debate every option, or scrutinize every motive. At the pace of today’s workplace, trust is the only lubricant that keeps your workplace gears from grinding.
As Maxym Sereda, cofounder of GC Plus, explained in a recent conversation, “Trust is key to positive relationships with employees, customers and partners. When you can trust that a fellow employee is going to give their best effort, you can focus your energy on your own responsibilities, rather than worrying about needing to pick up the slack. When customers trust you to do the right thing, they’ll be far more likely to give you their business — and keep doing business with you.”
On the opposite end of the trust spectrum, research from SHRM notes that when employees don’t trust their leaders, turnover rates go up significantly, while employees also become less likely to go above and beyond in terms of how much effort they apply to their own work. A lack of trust causes your team’s internal performance to suffer, and this directly impacts the customer.
Standing on the shoulders of our leaders requires significant trust
How To Ensure You Are Worthy Of Others’ Trust
During my 15-year longitudinal study of 3,000 business leaders for my book To Be Honest: Lead with the Power of Truth, Justice, and Purpose, I found that there are four key practices leaders should practice to help others see them as trustworthy. Developing these attributes can make a business leader 16 times as likely to earn and keep the trust of those they interact with.
First, leaders should be who they claim to be. Leaders must embody the values they state are important to them. For example, if you say you value helping your employees in their own personal growth, your feedback to them should never be sarcastic or belittling.
While no one is 100% consistent in their behavior, if you notice areas where your actions regularly don’t live up to your stated values, you must do something to address it. Otherwise, those who interact with you will view your values as hypocrisy — and lost trust will soon follow.
Second, leaders must treat all contributors with dignity. As Sereda noted, “It doesn’t matter what someone’s level within a company is. They must be respected for their contributions. As a leader, you can demonstrate how you truly value each member of your team by spotlighting different people for their efforts. This is especially valuable when the person you’re spotlighting isn’t in a leadership position. Connecting them with a mentor or highlighting their quality work helps everyone come to trust that you truly value them for who they are.”
Leaders must also learn how to appropriately balance transparency and discretion. While transparency is a popular buzzword in today’s business world, leaders are also privy to information that must be kept confidential. There’s a difference between building rapport by sharing information about your family or interests outside of work, and participating in office gossip by sharing personal information someone wanted kept private.
When it comes to work-related information, you should set and keep clear boundaries regarding what can be shared, and with whom. Sharing information that aids productivity and decision-making is an invaluable method of showing that you have your team’s best interests at heart. When you have information that you can’t share, you shouldn’t use this as a way of demonstrating your power over your employees.
Finally, trustworthy leaders seek to unify all who they come in contact with. Our world is full of division, and all too often, this spills over into the workplace as well. Leaders should help everyone in their organization feel safe to be themselves, regardless of what they look like, how different their ideas are and what they believe.
Leaders should strive to notice the things that are important to the people they work with, and the things that make them unique. Expressing genuine interest in them and never being judgmental over differences can help everyone feel welcomed and like a valued part of your team.
Leaders can also accomplish this by eliminating rivalries within their company. Helping unify everyone in a common cause and showing a willingness to work with others shows you put the greater good over your own ego — a key factor in building true trust.
Trust Is The Foundation For Your Reputation
The world has become less trusting, and as a result, the standards for trustworthiness have increased dramatically. Reliability and integrity are a good start, but these days, they aren’t enough to be someone who others consistently trust.
Great leaders don’t assume that they’ve earned others’ trust simply because they haven’t been overtly dishonest. Instead, they actively cultivate a trustworthy reputation through words and actions that help others come to trust them implicitly
