If you have any “real world” experience under your belt (read: you’ve bounced around a few different offices in your life), you’ve probably had at least one job you loved, and one you didn‘t. What was the difference? Probably, trust.
If you daydream about tripping your pain-in-the-ass coworker next time she walks by your cube or you feel that work is one, giant political labyrinth, you’re probably working in a low-trust workplace.
Harrumph. My condolences.
But you don’t have to wait for your coworker to get canned or your boss to lay down the law. You can take steps right now to build a more healthy, collaborative, and trusting environment. Neuroscience highlighted by Dr. Ellen Weber (Brain Leaders and Learners ) shows there are three ways that any of us can start building trust with others:
- Catch people doing things right
- Start a meeting with a genuine affirmation
- In a conversation with another person, find one idea that you can agree with, and say so.
When any of these things happen, some sort of tripwire goes off in the other’s brain and the conditions for trust begin to be created. One of the reasons I love these ideas is because they don’t rely on a manager or leader. Anyone can take initiative and set the tone in these ways. (Read the full blog here.)
More on the dividends of high trust:
- In his book, Firms of Endearment, Raj Sisodia builds the case for why companies who care outperform others. The publicly traded Firms of Endrearment companies returned 750% over 10 years while the S&P overall provided a 128% return. Over the last 5 years, these same companies gained their investors a 205% return, when the S&P lost 13%.
- The Great Place to Work Institute, the folks who score the Fortune 100 Best Places each year, place a high premium on trust. By some estimates, one-third of all the Best Place to Work questions are about trust. Read this article on three ways to achieve it, or read the rest of this sentence for the summary: Trust grows when (1) you perceive others as credible; (2) when you feel supported at work (who’s got your back?); and (3) when you perceive that the fruits of work are distributed fairly.
Trust is the reason employees will stay with you even when the job market heats up and they’re getting other offers
P.S. .One of the best books I’ve read on Trust (how to be a person of trust, how to build trust in teams) is The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey. It’s dense, I warn you. Get your highlighter, and plan to keep it as a reference.
