Business Leadership 17: Leaders Trust—Not Mistrust—Their Workforce

This continues our series on roles and traits of leadership that will benefit your business

I know I will sound old-fashioned in this post. I will advocate an old-fashioned thought that seems to find no place in today’s workplace. I speak of trusting your workforce. In spite of such great books as In the Speed of Trust by Stephen M. R. Covey (son of the late Stephen R. Covey who wrote 7 Habits of Highly Successful People), most workers report they feel management does not trust them. Most workers report more oppressive and hostile work places with more restrictions and punishments. Very few report a trusting and rewarding relationship with management.

Trusting Your Employees

The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) stated “Do employees who feel trusted have a greater sense of responsibility and give a better performance? A recent study finds compelling evidence that—at least in many cases—the answer is yes.”

True leaders not only trust their workers, but ensure the workers know they trust them. SHRM cited that many times managers said they trusted workers, but communicated the opposite—thus reducing performance, productivity, and profits.

Read Ken Blanchard’s thoughts in his article from Forbes. He uses Southwest Airlines and Chic-fil-A as examples of companies who built trust with employees on transparency and democratic decision making.

Consequences of Mistrust

SHRM also shared “Mistrust essentially equates to fear, Habermacher explained, which leads the brain to categorize people as ‘enemy.’ Trust, on the other hand, is tied to feelings of safety and viewing people as ‘friends.’ Given the way the brain functions, it’s not at all surprising that trust is imperative for high sales figures. ‘Trust gives you better brain functioning, and better feeling equals better performance,’ he said.”

Cultures of mistrust lose energy and profits as workers spend more time protecting themselves and trying to prevent management’s punitive consequences, rather than performing and producing profit.

Hidden agendas provide another example of mistrust. Companies lose precious time and performance while workers read between every line given by management.

Saturday we discuss that leaders inspire and manage—but do not micromanage their staff