{"id":418,"date":"2017-12-01T06:32:41","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T06:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danielvlopes238992071.wordpress.com\/2017\/12\/01\/how-to-repair-the-trust-of-your-team-as-a-leader\/"},"modified":"2024-07-12T12:25:56","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T19:25:56","slug":"how-to-repair-the-trust-of-your-team-as-a-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canopy.is\/blog\/2017\/12\/01\/how-to-repair-the-trust-of-your-team-as-a-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"How to repair the trust of your team as a leader"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One in three employees don\u2019t trust their employer. As a manager, here\u2019s what you can do about this significant leadership weakness\u2026<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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I recently came across a 2016 study conducted by Edelman<\/a> where they\u2019d surveyed 33,000 people in 28 countries. From it, they discovered: One in three people don\u2019t trust their employer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One in three people don\u2019t trust their employer.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I found this statistic astounding. As I read on, what surprised me even more was that only 24% of employees in this study believe their CEO exhibited highly ethical behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly, there is a trust gap between leadership teams and employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This alarms me because, as a founder, I consider trust to be the bedrock of a successful team and a successful company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you don\u2019t trust your employees and your employees don\u2019t trust you, everything fails. You move slower because you\u2019re questioning every move the other person makes. You find yourself micromanaging your employees, unintentionally weighing down the speed of progress and stifling employee morale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an employee, if you don\u2019t trust your leadership team, you\u2019re less likely to be inspired to work as hard or come up with innovative ideas. What\u2019s the point if you don\u2019t trust your manager to recognize you fairly or hear you out? You\u2019re also more likely to withhold information that could benefit the company\u200a\u2014\u200awhether that\u2019s noticing a trend in the market, or observing something worthwhile a competitor is doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps it\u2019s best put by this 2013 Harvard Business Review article<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWithout a foundation of trust, people in the organization may comply outwardly with a leader\u2019s wishes, but they\u2019re much less likely to conform privately\u200a\u2014\u200ato adopt the values, culture, and mission of the organization in a sincere, lasting way. Workplaces lacking in trust often have a culture of \u201cevery employee for himself,\u201d in which people feel that they must be vigilant about protecting their interests.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Even further, in the Edelman study, they found that employees who trust in their leadership team are more likely to advocate for their company and its product and services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To build more of this trust with your employees, the author of the study and the EVP and US Practice Chair for Employee Engagement, Christopher Hannegan, gave a clear recommendation. He said<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cOur study shows employees want to really understand who their CEOs are at a personal level, including the values that drive them, at levels higher than the general public want to understand CEOs\u2026Employees want to know their CEOs as people.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Employees want to know their leaders as people.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s that (seemingly) simple. The anecdote to the trust gap is to open up more as a person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the execution of this is what gets tricky. It\u2019s one thing to say \u201cYes, I want to open up more as a leader and as a person\u201d\u2026 and a totally separate thing to actually do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you go about sharing more of yourself? And what exactly do employees want to know? Here are a few places where you can start\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Share what you\u2019re working on<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

One of the most common sentiments I hear from the employees we serve through Canopy<\/a> is that they feel in the dark about what their leadership team is doing. Especially, if their manager is often out of the office traveling, or the team is remote or has multiple offices. Employees want to understand on a high-level what\u2019s on your plate as a leader. It gives them more context about why it\u2019s taking you a while to respond to one of their emails, or why a certain initiative in the company was kicked off. So share where you\u2019re traveling, what are your big to-dos, etc. Many CEOs do this in the form of a monthly or weekly CEO address that they\u2019ll type in an email or even film a short video on their laptop. Others will use the Heartbeats Check-in in Canopy<\/a> as a way to replace (or enhance) their daily stand-up meetings or weekly all-staff meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Share your personal values<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

What matters to you as a leader? What inspires you? Who are your personal heroes? The Edelman study revealed how 80% of employees wish their leaders discussed their own personal values. Consider discussing this the next time you\u2019re talking about the company\u2019s values. For example, when you welcome a new hire to the team, feel encouraged to reveal your own personal values as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Share the obstacles you\u2019ve overcome + your personal success story<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Who are the people who\u2019ve influenced your life the most? What\u2019s the hardest thing you\u2019ve faced? What are you most grateful for? What do you do to stay resilient? The Edelman study showed that 73% of employees want to know the obstacles you\u2019ve overcome, and 68% want to hear your personal success story. You might open up about this the next time you take an employee to lunch. Or it might be a personal anecdote you mention when you explain to the company why a certain decision was made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Share your personal hobbies<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

How do you spend your time outside of work? What\u2019s a new skill you\u2019ve been trying to pick up? What makes you laugh? What you\u2019ve been reading lately? The more you can provide a clear picture to your employees of who you are as a person, the greater connection they\u2019ll feel. Don\u2019t hesitate to share these things the next time you\u2019re at your company\u2019s happy hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Social Questions in Canopy<\/a> is the perfect way to share this \u2013 and more \u2013 with fun, non-cheesy questions that help everyone in the team form unlikely connections with you and other team members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Share the long-term societal impact you want to have<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The study found that 68% of employees believed leaders focused too much on short-term financial results, and not enough on positive long-term impact. Even more interesting is that 8 out of 10 employees believed that their leaders should share how they feel on societal issues such as income inequality, public policy discussions, and personal views on societal issues. Something to chew on as you look to be more transparent as a leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For some of you, the idea of sharing all of this (or even some<\/em> of this) feels nerve-wracking. Perhaps you\u2019re an introvert (like myself!) who\u2019s fairly private and doesn\u2019t really like disclosing this kind of stuff with anyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s totally fine. You don\u2019t want to force it. But I might suggest starting small. Perhaps start with just giving a monthly update on what you\u2019re working on in the company. And gradually move to sharing some of your personal hobbies or what you did over the weekend. You want to do this in a natural way, and you want to sound like yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For others of you, you might feel like all of this sharing is too much. How much do my employees really<\/em> want to know? Do they really care that I like going to yoga on Sundays or that Kevin Garnett is a personal hero of mine?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might feel trivial. It might even feel like extra work. But we\u2019re humans. Finding points of commonality and better understanding who we are as people are important parts of being able to work with others\u200a\u2014\u200aand it\u2019s fundamental to building trust. You can\u2019t build trust without being vulnerable, without sharing something of yourself first. You have to give first, to get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a leader, that should start with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alrighty. <\/em>Are you ready to get to know your team better now, and build greater trust in your team?<\/em><\/strong> \ud83d\ude04 Use our Social Questions<\/a> and Icebreakers Tool<\/a> to help everyone get to know you as a leader \u2013\u00a0and everyone to get to know each other. <\/em>Give Canopy a whirl today.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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