The number one reason employees are
happy is they trust their leaders (Lamb & McKee).
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Surprisingly, less than half of employees have trust and confidence in their senior managers (Baldoni, Lead Your Boss).
Six Creative Ways to Build Trust
- Declare what you want rather than what you don’t want. Saying what you don’t want stops things. Saying what you do want instills confidence to starts things.
- Trust is based not only on openness but on keeping a confidence. What you don’t say builds trust.
- Honesty plus ability builds trust. An honest electrician isn’t competent to renovate a master bathroom. He may be perfectly honest. However, don’t trust him with your toilet.
- Explain organizational performance. For example, don’t hide financial successes in order to keep people hungry.
- It’s hard trusting the captain when the ship’s adrift. Stand on the bow with telescope in hand and bravely call out the course. Do your people know where you are going?
- Let people know how they fit in and what their work means. Say something like, “When you do “X” it makes a difference.” Explain the positive difference others make.
Leader as Trust Builder
Employee satisfaction is a complex mix of many factors. Research demonstrates the number one satisfaction-factor is they trust their leaders. Ask yourself the hard question, “Are my employees satisfied?” Perhaps the harder question is, “What am I intentionally doing to build trust?”
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(The central premise of this post comes from research done by Lawrence Lamb and Kathy McKee (2005), Applied Public Relations: Cases in Stakeholder Management)
Additional reading, “How Investing in Intangibles — Like Employee Satisfaction — Translates into Financial Returns.”
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How can leaders build trust?
What other factors lead to employee satisfaction?