When They Trust You
Around the water cooler, voices and opinions come through loud and clear, but in a meeting with management, no one says a word. Why is that? In many cases, employees lack feelings of trust and loyalty toward their employers.

As cited in an article by jobbankusa.com, a 2007 study by Leadership IQ found that only 20 percent of employees strongly trust senior management, 36 percent moderately trust senior management and 44 percent either distrust or strongly distrust senior management.

When employees don't trust management, productivity wanes as team members spend more time covering themselves or playing politics. A lack of trust affects morale and customer satisfaction as soon as employees shift attention from working on real-life issues to resentment or dissatisfaction towards management.

Three timeless qualities

Programs and policies won't produce trust; but building relationships will. First theorized by Aristotle and echoed by today's prominent thought-leaders, these three qualities allow companies to foster trust:

• Leadership and communication. Managers are not perfect and inevitably they make mistakes. Savvy leaders understand that admitting mistakes beats a cover up any day. Sharing the good news and bad news with a rationale can eliminate destructive gossip—team members should not have to guess what management is thinking.
• Character and reliability. Set and keep consistent moral values for the workplace and make actions visible. Reputable managers build trust with consistent and predictable actions. Employees pick up on inconsistent, insincere and broken promises and lose respect for the people in charge.
• Goodwill and intentions. Team members must feel free to express concerns, identify problems and share sensitive information. People have real needs. Treat others as they wish to be treated – with dignity and respect.

Stepping up to the plate

Everyone has the ability to create trust. Building trust with others proves critical for creating an effective team that works well together, but remember:

• Trust is a 2-way street; you get it if you give it. Consider employees trustworthy unless they prove otherwise. As team members feel trusted by their manager, they will find it easier to trust in return.
• Trust won't happen over night; it takes time. Managers built and maintain trust by many small actions over time; not by one great achievement. People earn trust through their behavior, rather than polished exteriors.
• Trust isn't easy; it takes a lot of work. Trust means telling the truth, even when you find it difficult. It takes dedication to remain truthful, authentic and trustworthy in all your dealings with customers and staff.

Trust serves as the basis for effective communication, employee retention and employee motivation. Remember to always treat employees like your company depends on them – because it does. When trust exists in an organization, almost everything else feels easier to achieve.