What can leaders do to win their employees’ trust?
Trust as the basis of leadership and cooperation
Building trust is an important step to enable people to work together. Trust comes from the relationship that people develop when they get to know each other personally, and don’t see each other as a potential threat. Therefore, leaders should take care to give the team members sufficient opportunity to get to know each other, and are themselves included in this process. This can happen during working hours as well as in common activities after work. In addition, it is important that managers act as role models for their teams in that they admit to their own mistakes and weaknesses. This is an important indication to the team, signaling that you can learn from mistakes and that team members can support each other. Trust can develop if no one is afraid to lose face in front of the others.
Trust versus Fairness
In addition to trust, fairness is also important for cooperation at work. A line manager can think about the following: in order to be credible, should I apply the same standards to myself as I do to my team members? For example, as far as performance is concerned. This would be a precept of fairness. In addition, I recommend to leaders that they should work out rules for collaboration together with their team. If a team member or the line manager violates one of these rules, or if there is a conflict, then the team should resolve the conflict in accordance with the cooperation rules. Of course, confidence in leadership is needed and it can be seen as an indicator of a viable relationship when team members are not reluctant to report critical issues to their line manager.
Appreciating Diversity
In addition to the above mentioned, an appreciation of diversity is also essential. Team members have different strengths and preferences. The more diverse the preferences are, the more effective and productive a team can be. The leader needs a healthy self-awareness in order to be able to appreciate diversity. Our self-awareness shapes our inner attitude, that is, how we think about others and ourselves. This inner attitude determines our feelings and behavior. If a manager tends to downgrade themselves or others because of a lack of self-confidence, appreciation of diversity will hardly be possible. Therefore, a manager should be aware of his or her own inner attitude. Is it a negative attitude, concentrating their attention on deficits, and leading to a devaluation of others? Or is it an attitude that allows people to be different and looks for possible strengths and potentials?
In addition to becoming aware of their own inner attitude, I recommend that leaders use personality tests or team roll identification tests to identify different preferences in the team. On this basis the team can come to see that we all tick differently, and that this is okay. When we feel valued as a person, this unlocks a great and powerful potential. Then we are more willing to contribute our strengths to the success of the team and the company, to support others and to appreciate and express our differences.
Increasing emotional identification with the team
A manager can also consider how to increase the emotional bonds within the team. Emotional attachment means that a team member enjoys working with the others in the team. Getting together outside working hours certainly increases this bond. But a manager can do more. He or she should praise the team for their success and celebrate these successes together with the team. In addition, regular feedback rounds are useful in helping individual team members to check whether there are interpersonal issues that they need to deal with. But in order to create the kind of open culture you need for these discussions, it is important to establish trust as the basis of cooperation! And this closes the circle.
I am looking forward to the exchanging thoughts with you. What do you think about the content of the blog? What are your own experiences with the subject of trust? Your feedback, your experience and suggestions are welcome!
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