The Power of Trust
Yesterday i wrote some thoughts about the use of instant messenger in the work place and this stirred up strong debate, much of which is really around the trust we should place in our employees. Therefore following on from this i thought it would be good to explore just how much power we can gained from placing trust in people.
I have found that the more i trust people to get on with their jobs the better the work environment becomes and more importantly the more that gets done. Lets explore two extremes – first is a place with strong trust and the second is one without it.
Scenario One – Strong Trust
In a place where there is strong trust, people are give clear direction on what needs to be done, given broad guidelines on how they should do it and then treated like adults and allowed to get on with their jobs.
For example sales people should be given clear training and guidance on the products and services that they are selling. They should be given clear territories in which they should hunt for business and given the tools to get on with it. The should be told what is expected in terms of presentation (suits etc), hours they should work and most importantly the expected outcomes (targets) and then left to get on with it.
In a trusting environment they should be left alone and allowed to get on an sell. Of course they should be measured weekly to ensure that adequate progress is being made but they should not be micromanaged.
The result is often that people deliver results, go above and beyond, work the hours that they need to get the job done, feel empowered and respected, and in the end deliver so much more to the business. Yes you will have to weed out the bad eggs, but that is always the case. However in general people become part of the culture that drives the business and the business is well placed for delivering long term future growth.
Scenario Two – Low Trust
The other scenario is where management doesnt trust the employees. This could be for a number of reasons – they fear people may be better than them, they want to hold people back, they dont understand what their people are doing, or they just dont trust people.
In this environment management takes a different approach. They micro-manage people, block websites, ban messenger, not allow people to work from home anymore, ans they track even try to track everything people do – i have even heard of a business that is starting to measure what people are doing on their computers to ensure that they are not wasting time.
The result is that people start to work to rule. Recently i was chatting to middle manager in a work place that has recently undergone a change in leadership and they commented that people felt like they were not trusted anymore and that they were under the microscope 24/7. The result, he believed, was that people went from working to get the job done to working to the clock. They no longer chatted to each other freely and in general he believed that productivity had fallen.
The funny thing about low trust environments is that manegement have a loss in productivity not only because people are no longer engaged with the business but also because they need to increase the checks and balances.
The point is that people who are given trust repay it 10 times over. However for management to trust people often takes a leap of faith and one that many dont take.
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Absolutely agree – a high trust environment is not only a more enjoyable place to work, but you get better outcomes faster and at a lower cost. And trust works both ways – it’s not just how much management trusts their staff, but also whether staff trust their managers.
I’m reading a great book at the moment called “The Speed of Trust” by Stephen M.R. Covey (the son of the “7 Habits” Stephen Covey). It’s a solid, practical look at trust in business, including what makes someone trustworthy, which behaviours tend to build trust with others, how to rebuild trust in a low-trust environment, etc