Trust is not spoken, it is demonstrated. Trust cannot be requested, it must be earned. Answer these three questions to assess how trustworthy your team thinks you are.
In 2008, Bernard Madoff scammed over 5,000 investors out of 65 billion dollars. Like any crime that you read or hear about, it's concerning to each of us. Shortly after I learned of the scandal, my reaction deepened when I spoke with an old friend whose aging parents had invested their entire retirement savings with Madoff. I felt the real-life implications of broken trust as my friend's parents had to consider selling their house, changing a lifestyle they had worked years to earn and feeling the angst of an uncertain final chapter in their lives.
Knowing the right questions to ask is better than having all the right answers. Or as Decouvertes put it, "It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question."
So, the fastest way to change the answers you receive – from yourself and your team – is to change the questions you ask. Consider the possible responses to questions like these:
The more I lead, the more I work with leaders, and the more I parent, the more I see compelling parallels between leadership and parenting. Leaders are parents, and parents are leaders. They are in different settings with parallel roles.
Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D. wrote this poem, "Children Learn What They Live." As you read it below, replace the word children, with employees, and the connection between parenting and leadership is abundantly clear.
Home is where the heart is, and work is where the laptop is.
Working remotely does not have to feel so distant for your team. Here are 11 techniques to help you team feel more connected.
Team Meetings:
1. Create a regular schedule and stick with it. Avoid the temptation to have impromptu meetings with those who are under your same roof.
2. Incorporate rituals into your virtual meetings like quickly sharing High's/Low's since your last meeting to get warmed up and create a window into your team's world.
The words you use impact your actual situation. Are you using positive words for success? Find out.
The words you use are more powerful than you imagine. Most people greet each other with words that have no power. Think of the last time you heard someone else (or even yourself) respond to a greeting of "How are you?" with "Oh, I am doing so-so," "Hanging in there," "I'm surviving" or "Not too bad." It probably wasn't much past yesterday.
Try this: use words to change your situation, not to describe it.
Your door might be open, but are you? Try these trust-building actions the next time a team member needs to talk.
We live in an information-rich, time-poor world, with lots of inputs coming at us in any given moment.
Although it seems like our environment requires us to multitask, more and more research reveals that single-tasking is the most effective approach to getting things done.
Single-tasking is particularly critical to the leader who is trying to establish real trust. Taking the right steps will make it clear to your team members that you:
Before you send out your next email or have a difficult conversation with an employee, take the time to review this guideline. You'll be glad you did.
With each column I write, I carefully consider the point I want to make. I draft the column, reflect on it, tweak it, and review it before I submit it to my editor, who does some of the same.
Unfortunately, that type of careful thought and reflection doesn't always happen in the business environment. Today's technology and social-media platforms enable us to express top-of-mind, unfiltered thoughts to the world – often to disastrous results. Remember, just because we can say something doesn't mean we should.
