One of the most common worries I hear from managers is whether they can trust their teams and whether their teams trust them.
If you want to build (or maybe rebuild) the trust of your people, you'll need to plant a seed and water it every single day. If we plant a seed and then neglect it, it won't grow. Simple fact. We've all known this since we were 4 or 5 years old.
Okay...nice metaphor. But how does this translate into reality? In a busy working environment. In a crisis or challenging financial quarter. When we're understaffed?
Here's how.
> Every single time you control your frustration, avoid ‘blaming’ and convey an open and encouraging approach instead, you plant a seed for trust.
> Every day that you listen (truly listen) to one person for a few minutes, you water that seed of trust.
> Every time you ask your team members for their opinion, you feed that seed of trust.
> When there is a crisis and you need to rely on them, that seed of trust will have sprouted into something you can harvest.
Leaders who have reaped such a harvest in the past include Ernest Shackleton (Leader of the Endurance Expedition), Naohiro Masuda (Manager of the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Plant – the one that didn’t melt down) and Jim Lovell (Commander of the Apollo 13 mission).
Until next time, take care,
Lisa.
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