LEADERS SPEND ENERGY BUILDING TRUST – AND AVOIDING LOSING TRUST – WITH THEIR TEAMMATES
Cynthia Kane is an author and the founder of the Kane International Communications Institute. In an article I read recently, she posited that it can take years to build trust or make your teammates feel safe but losing integrity, credibility and professionalism can take only a few seconds. And once you lose it, it is very hard to reclaim.
During my years in the workplace, especially at Georgetown Law Center, I saw this process play out many times. Leaders who had not created psychological safety for their teammates, would – sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally – say or do things that significantly eroded trust among their team members.
This concept reminded me of the powerful metaphor that Stephen Covey created several decades ago when he wrote “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”
In teaching his Habit, Five, “Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood,” Covey created a metaphor that rang true for his readers, his seminar, attendees, his clients, his friends and his family.
That metaphor is the emotional bank account. It represents the amount of trust residing in a relationship between two people. As with regular bank accounts, individuals can make deposits or withdrawals from these accounts on a consistent basis.
As leaders, it is incumbent upon all of us to think about how we can make deposits in an our emotional bank accounts with our colleagues, our managers, our leaders, our clients, and of course, our own friends and family members.
Everybody with whom we work is different. What might be a deposit in one person‘s emotional bank account might be a withdrawal from another person‘s emotional bank account. That’s why it is critical for us as leaders to get to know the people with whom we work, whether they are in the next office, on Zoom or Substack.
I encourage you to make time this coming week to ponder how you can make deposits in those emotional bank accounts which are most important to you at work and at home:
-Can you write a handwritten thank-you note to someone who values such personal feedback?
-Can you take an important client or colleague out to lunch to check on their well-being and key projects?
-Can you explore colleagues’ highest priorities for the coming quarter and brainstorm with them about how they can best achieve their goals?
-Can you do a listening tour among your teammates, letting them know that you care deeply about their fit in the organization and their being set up to succeed?
-Can you go out of your way to praise teammates to your own manager so that he or she knows who the real stars are on your team?
-Can you make it a point each day to catch somebody doing something right and articulate your appreciation?
Every single person with whom we work wants to be able to trust us – to trust both our character and our competence. Leaders know that trust is something that is earned and not easily given. Are you showing up at work each day, whether in a home office or an office with your colleagues, ready to strengthen your trust with your teammates?
Remember that trust flows both ways. Just because you are, the leader does not mean that people will automatically trust you. We must demonstrate that trust over a long period of time and in a consistent manner.
I invite you to think carefully about this important leadership concept.
What could you do, starting tomorrow, to enhance the trust culture among your team, and to demonstrate your willingness to earn the trust of your teammates going forward?
If you believe this content would resonate with a friend or colleague, please feel free to forward it along!
-Larry