Do your employees trust your company’s leadership?
Hint: Probably not
Employee Engagement is notoriously low. Our client’s Employee Engagement & Culture surveys indicate Trust is the primary culprit. The latest Gallup Workforce study backs that up: only 3 out of 10 employees strongly agree that they trust the leadership of their organization. (Gallup, 11/19)
Workplaces high on the trust scale, with 7 in 10 employees trusting leaders, have a whole different energy than those on the low end with only 1 or 2 in 10.
- High trust: Employees who trust their leadership are twice as likely to say they’ll be with their company one year from now because they’re challenged, motivated and enjoy the workplace.
- Low trust: Employees who don’t trust leadership are planning their exit and have no interest in making a new strategy work or creating new customer initiatives. They go through the motions, punch in/out and don’t do much more than the job requires.
High-trust organizations have an advantage in all the metrics: speed, quality, productivity, innovation, profits. When leaders mess up, employees cut them some slack and get their backs, so the organization wins. The blame game has no home in high-trust workplaces.
What causes people to trust their leaders?
Honesty. Transparency. Owning up to mistakes. To name a few…
Getting each other’s backs. Avoiding the blame-game. Expressing vulnerability. Admitting to not having all the answers.
There’s no great secret to it. You earn trust by respecting people, treating them as equals, showing compassion and empathy. Asking how they’re doing because you sincerely care. Knowing their names!
How to measure trust?
We can help! Our Employee Engagement & Culture survey combines 7 questions that are proven indicators of trust.
- Discover your “trust score”
- Find out how your trust score compares to others in your industry – we have the benchmark data.
Building Blocks of Trust
R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
It’s that simple. Simple to remember, not so simple to do.
The good news: the 7 building blocks are not something we’re born with or without. They can be learned and practiced.
Look again at those 7 building blocks. They represent engagement at the leadership level.
There are two main aspects of leadership engagement:
- Meaningful involvement in what and how your organization runs – its people, processes and teams.
- Meaningful communication about how well the organization’s people, processes and teams meet performance goals.
Engagement fuels Trust
Putting it simply, engagement is the fuel that builds trust. Top to bottom. Side to side. Person to person.
There’s a cascade effect in successful organizations: engaged leaders fuel engaged managers, who fuel the front line. When the left hand knows what the right hand is doing, there’s a contagious energy that builds success. Winning comes easier when you trust people you work with.
Key takeaway: Trust is a dimension of your business just begging to be improved. Rally your leadership and management teams to build a culture of trust, a powerful lever to improve performance.
Be the leader you want to be – learn how to build a courageous team
