In Order To Build Trust, We Must Give It Freely

Trust, or more accurately lack of it, has recently been highlighted by our employees as one of the key areas for our organization to address in the 2016 Voice of the Employee report.  This happens to be one of my favorite topics to contemplate, but I have to tell you that I am worried about the direction we are heading. 

In a TED Talk entitled Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe, author Simon Sinek says, “The problem with concepts of trust and cooperation is that they are feelings, they are not instructions. I can't simply say to you, ‘Trust me,’ and you will.”

Simon Sinek argues great companies make their folks feel safe

Many times throughout my career I have felt that my organization asked more of me than I was comfortable giving based on the level of trust I felt.  Because of that, I now work very deliberately to inspire trust in my team, and demonstrate the trust I have in those who work for me.  I interact, I delegate, I give top cover, I practice the philosophy of  “share success, own failure,” I try to be an active listener, and I’m constantly looking for ways to push autonomy (the ultimate form of trust) further down into my organization.  In April 2016 we unveiled the “Follow Your Passion” project that gives all 250 of my employees 10% free time to pursue anything they desire.  I’m certain I fall short in inspiring trust in everyone I meet, but it’s not for a lack of trying.

I first heard Sinek’s TED Talk on trust (and subsequently read Sinek’s book “Leaders Eat Last,” on the same subject) in 2014 when I was leading implementation of our agency's talent management program (called Career Services).  I realized immediately that I had wrongly assumed everyone would understand the logical argument for building bench-strength in key positions and having a more fair process to select for selective developmental programs (career development; promoting our best and most versatile officers (rank-in-person promotion); and having the ability to expeditiously fill hard-to-fill jobs and place hard-to-place people (reassignment).  But after hearing Sinek’s point that trust is an emotion, I realized that facts alone could simply not overcome the fear that our workforce was feeling regarding the various programs overseen by our career services, which also included the possibility of involuntary reassignment (possibly to include moving to a new location). 

As a result I spent more time in small-group discussions with our workforce listening to employee concerns and making declarative, trust-inspiring statements to counter the fear narrative that had emerged from the small-but-outspoken segment of our workforce who doubted the efficacy or legitimacy of the program.  I still spoke of the facts behind the program (to answer the favorite question, “what’s broken?”), but increasingly I tried to explain the lengths we had gone to in order to ensure the Career Service program benefitted our workforce and brought a level of transparency and predictability we previously lacked.  I also shared details about how we considered and worked to minimize the negative impact on our workforce as we built the program.  By the end of of those discussions, most people thanked me for acknowledging their concerns and told me that they appreciated understanding the “why” behind Career Services even if they did not agree with all aspects of the program. 

And what I took away from those interactions is that there are really two kinds of trust at work in our organization.  Personal trust—the trust between people—and organizational trust—the trust we have in the organization’s ability to make us feel safe.  The article “The Enemies of Trust” published in the Harvard Business Review actually argues that there are three kinds of trust (strategic, personal, and organizational) that are often at play in an organization.  The article goes on to list a number of things that erode trust in a workplace, including:

- Inconsistent messages

- Inconsistent standards

- Misplaced benevolence (tolerating incompetence, negativity, and bad behavior)

- False feedback

- Failure to trust others

- Elephants in the parlor

- Rumors in a vacuum

- Consistent corporate underperformance

Reading through this list, I see elements of each of these working against us today.  And as we address the issue of mistrust, I would argue THESE are the enemies that we should work to overcome.  These all relate to organizational trust, but in our organization I very often hear complaints about a lack of organizational trust related in very personal ways.  I cannot tell you how many times I have seen written on the Graffiti Wall (an open and anonymous employee suggestion board) statements that suggest the senior executives in our organization are self-interested and unworthy of trust.  Does this include all senior executives?  Even me? 

This is where I think a lack of precision about trust, and mistrust, can actually be harmful.  For example, I was recently discussing the results of the Voice of the Employee report with a member of our Employee Council.  We were debating the need for anonymity (not just confidentiality) when giving feedback up the management chain.  My position...you have to trust that I want honest input and will not seek retribution against someone for sharing bad news.  Their position...since we have such low levels of trust in the organization, employees must have a way to pass on feedback in a way that makes it impossible to figure out who said it.  Whether intended or not, the message I heard is that none of us...not even I...can be trusted.

When we conflate personal trust and organizational trust, we drive a wedge between ourselves that I believe will actually decrease trust across the board.  I believe almost all of our senior executives agree that we have room to improve in addressing the “enemies of trust” list above—and our workforce will have willing allies in us as we seek to address them.  But overcoming breaches in personal trust across the entire organization, whether real or based on perception, requires a level of management oversight and self-accountability that very few of us can control.

It is not often spoken about, but that feeling of trust that Sinek discusses in his talk works both ways.  Surely we have senior leaders and managers in our midst who do not inspire trust in our workforce because of their actions or because they do not adequately communicate their intentions.  But I have also seen our employees attempt to manipulate the system solely for their own advantage, sometimes at the expense of their own teammates.  These employees erode our trust in their personal motives, and sometimes results in us responding organizationally (with overly limiting policy decisions or blunt leadership statements) in a way that suggests we do not trust our own workforce--obviously the wrong response.  So we must be clearly focused on improving organizational trust, and pledge to hold ourselves and each other accountable, as we seek to improve trust across our organization.  I'm willing to extend the first hand of trust...how about you?