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What makes a company great? Its CULTURE.
What makes a great corporate culture? LEADERSHIP.
What makes a great Leader? TRUST.
So, if you want to hit that trifecta, great company, corporate culture and leader, then you need to delve deeper into the word TRUST. I can’t tell you how many leaders I’ve known, who were extremely talented, but needlessly lost the TRUST of employees for preventable reasons. They chose “not” to adhere to the rules they asked others to play by. They asked others to make sacrifices they weren’t willing to make themselves.
Nobel Prize winning psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, found that people would rather do business with (and employees will follow) a person they trust. Trust is a confident belief in a person, product or organization. Trust is confidence in the honesty, integrity, ability and character of a person. Former CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch, once said, “Leadership is about two things – Trust & Trust.” In our quest to stay up with the latest and greatest management fad, I feel we are losing sight of the most important ingredient in making a company successful, TRUST. Employees want to work for leaders who are trustworthy, reliable, responsible, considerate and consistent.
One of the phrases being used a lot in corporate America today, is having employees who are “fully engaged” in their job. Why is it important to have “fully engaged” employees? According to a Towers Watson Global Workplace Study, companies with “fully engaged” employees “had operating margins almost three times those of organizations with a largely disengaged workforce.” That is an impressive number. But an alarming statistic the study uncovered is that only 21% of employees are “fully engaged.” OUCH!
Another scary statistic is employees are also four times more likely to leave an organization because of lack of appreciation and TRUST so, leaders need to have an “attitude of gratitude”. Look for ways to compliment and recognize employees for a job well done. TRUST thrives in this type of environment. Create a “Corporate Culture” that influences the level of TRUST for all employees.
Here is a simple acrostic that I feel identifies several necessary characteristics any leader needs to possess if they have any intention of creating TRUST.
T Transparent
R Reasonable
U Understanding
S Supportive
T Thoughtful
You need to understand that every action you take will either increase or decrease the level of TRUST employees have. Marketing guru, Seth Godin, who has also authored 19 international best-selling books, addressed the importance of TRUST this way; “Earn TRUST, then worry about the rest.” Employees have learned not to TRUST words, they TRUST actions.
Great leaders think beyond themselves. They have found that employees put TRUST in those who truly care about them. What have you done to gain the TRUST of your employees? What actions have you taken recently, that proves your involvement in their success?
YOU DON’T DEMAND TRUST - YOU EARN IT