Many experts agree that trust is perhaps, the most important element of an efficient work environment, and organizations that have trust among employees are usually successful. Trust is a primary attribute associated with leadership; when trust is broken, it can have adverse effects on a group’s performance.
Trusted leaders get many rewards such as the ability to retain talented people; more engaged employees, a more positive performance/development-driven work culture and most importantly, improved results. In the workplace, trust is a prerequisite for effective communication and without it employees may feel a sense of insecurity.
So management often asks, “how can we build trust in the workforce and also build effective teams to improve performance?” Well, it all starts at the very top with these five key attributes:
Competency:Every manager needs 3 skills to play his role effectively. These are the technical skills, human skills and the conceptual skills. Employees are unlikely to listen to or depend upon someone whose abilities they don’t respect. They need to believe that the person has the skills and abilities to carry out what he or she says they will do. That is leadership by example.
Expertise has become one of the most powerful sources of influence as the world has become more technically oriented. As jobs become more specialized, we become increasingly dependent on experts to achieve goals. Therefore, for any manager to build trust in the workforce, he should be seen and perceived to be knowledgeable and skillful in his area of expertise and that would make him dependable.
Integrity: This refers to honesty and truthfulness. People are unlikely to look up to or follow someone they perceive as dishonest or who is likely to take advantage of them. Honesty is absolutely essential to leadership and consistently ranks at the top of most people’s list of the characteristics they need in their leaders.
If people are going to follow someone willingly, whether into a battle or the boardroom, they first want to assure themselves that the person is worthy of their trust. The issues of reengineering, downsizing, retrenchment and the increased use of temporary or casual employees have undermined a lot of employee trust in management.In order to build a trusting workforce the leader must always “walk his talk”.
Consistency: Central to the idea of consistency is fairness and this is what is called the “hot stove” approach to management. It relates to the individual manager’s reliability, predictability and good judgment in handling situations. Inconsistencies between words and actions decrease trust. This is very important in reward and disciplinary procedures. The grievance handling and reward procedures should be clear, precise and unambiguous and employees should have clear guidelines and directions in relation to appointments, promotions and sanctions - devoid of nepotism, favouritism and discrimination.
Loyalty: When employees perceive their managers as disloyal to them and their needs, they tend to be more comfortable with omission than commission, which result in organizational inertia. Loyalty is therefore the willingness to protect and ‘save face’ for another person.
If being honest will lead to betraying your subordinates, then it presents a dilemma. Therefore, unless what the employee did was gross misconduct, managers should always try to defend the interest of their subordinates. This will elicit that sense of commitment and partnership leading to a sense of ownership, which is crucial for efficient organizational performance.
Openness and Transparency: This requires that the leader or manager accounts fully for his stewardship and the question that arose is, “can you rely on the person to give you the full truth?”
Communication is important since it provides the artery for information, feedback and truth. By communicating the organization’s visions, management defines where it is going. By communicating its values, the methods for getting there are established. Therefore, building a reputation of trust and fairness gives you a buffer against times when the policy is wrong or you behave badly. Feedback on activities is also a very important tool to ensure transparency.
When we look at the truly successful organizations of both today and yesterday, we find out that their leaders fostered the five principles of creating trust. It is important for every leader to build trust among their superiors, peers, subordinates, etc. Finally, managers should always take cognizance of the fact that it takes years to build and sustain trust and only seconds to destroy it.
DCOP Kofi Boakye
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