Trust & trustworthiness

Businesses spend huge amounts of money as a result of their inability to have confidence in the trustworthiness of employees. Every thing from security services to work process’s full of permission steps, all because of lack of trust. Additionally employees can become fearful, angry, cynical and less productive if not trusted.

 

A wise man once told me that the worst thing about lying is not necessarily the damage of the lie. It is the fact that a liar can’t trust anyone else and becomes locked into a life wasting behavior pattern. The same thing can be true of a workplace where there is no trust and trustworthiness.

 

Business Author Steven Covey teaches that trust and trustworthiness are characteristics of highly effective people, that pride and tradition are built on trust. It makes sense because people tend to live up to the expectations you have of them. Also people are more open, more likely to do what you request, try something new, and work hard to accomplish important goals if they trust you.

 

Being trustworthy involves more than just being honest in what you say to people. It also involves people knowing that you are honest and fair in your actions as a leader. People need to be able to trust that you are looking out for their best interest as well as the company’s.

 

I try very hard to be trustworthy. I make a conscious decision to trust people flat out and I try to make a point to tell them that I do. If for some reason trust is broken, I work out a process to reestablish trust. I simply don’t want to waste the time and energy fooling around building defenses because of lack of trust.

 

Everyone starts a new job with a trust account, (like a bank account). Each day your actions either build or deplete your account. If your actions build up your account, you will likely grow into an influential leader. If you withdraw more than you put in you will be toast as a leader.

 

Sometimes people confuse performance indicators and performance tracking tools with trust issues, which should not be the case. An example is professional baseball. Every player has a gazillion stats kept on them around everything they do. The purpose is to monitor and improve performance, not for lack of trust.