Trust is everything
I’ve been thinking, reading and talking a lot about trust over recent months; partly because of its heightened importance during the pandemic but also due to its significance in creating positive work cultures and relationships long-term. Trust has featured as a common topic in a number of coaching conversations over the past year, both in terms of trusting leaders, senior managers and other colleagues, and feeling trusted by those colleagues in return.
A recent ADP Research Institute study concluded that trust is the most powerful driver of engagement and resilience, with employees who completely trust their leaders being 14 times more likely to feel fully engaged and 42 times more likely to be highly resilient at work. Psychological safety trumps dysfunction and micromanagement every day.
Trust isn’t new: most of us are hard-wired to trust others as a default. But trust can be quickly eroded or is harder to maintain during challenging times (like the last 12 months).
So what does trust look and feel like in real life? There are many trust ‘models’ (see the ‘Trust Equation’ below), however most include the following behaviours:
Open and transparent communication which drives positive relationships
An organisational growth (or learning) mindset
Leaders and managers who are reliable role models and who coach rather than control
Leaders who exercise good judgment, experience and credibility
Regular and consistent feedback (including upwards feedback)
Honest and ‘human’ conversations where we’re treated as adults.
When these (and more) are combined, trust then builds high-performing teams and cultures. Just read ‘No Rules Rules’ for an insight into how trust creates a culture of freedom and responsibility at Netflix.
I’ve also been reflecting on the importance of trust to my own coaching conversations and the critical role of emotional intelligence to develop and maintain trust. I attended Coaching Culture’s Virtual Conference in March 2021 (Trust Matters: How to build a culture of trust) where a ‘TRUST’ model for coaching conversations was introduced:
T – Thinking time
R – Rapport
U – Understanding
S – Solutions
T – Tasks or transformation.
Not only is this a useful model for coaches but it’s a framework for leaders and managers to use during their own coaching conversations with individuals and teams – conversations which are vital to encourage safe ‘speaking up’, build team collaboration and drive high performance.
Working from home has made it harder for many to establish trust because the opportunities to build the trust behaviours and see them in action are often reduced. As we move towards a ‘hybrid’ way of working, we must continue to be proactive and create regular contact and interactions where trust can be demonstrated by us and discovered in others.
References
The Top 10 Findings on Resilience and Engagement (mit.edu)
The 3 Elements of Trust (hbr.org)
Understanding The Trust Equation | Trusted Advisor
Written by Executive Coach, Jamie Butler for The Tall Wall.
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