Trust and Respect — Key Facets of Strong Leadership
Being a manager is hard; being a great manager is even harder.
About 12 years ago, my team took a survey on my performance as their manager. I wasn’t worried; everything was going well on my team.
However, when I received the survey responses, they were all great, except for one. In response to “How much do you trust your manager?,” my employees had given me a much lower score than I expected. I was shocked.
I decided I needed to get to the root of why one of my team members didn’t trust me. Because at the end of the day, being a great manager is about creating a foundation of trust and respect. Without that, your team will never be as great as it could be. According to research by the Harvard Business Review, compared with people at low-trust companies, people at high-trust companies report: 74% less stress, 106% more energy at work, 50% higher productivity, 13% fewer sick days, 76% more engagement, 29% more satisfaction with their lives, and 40% less burnout. Those are big numbers!
Over the years I’ve tried out different ways to create trust within my team. Here are two ways you can foster a culture of respect and trust within your own team:
1. Create a safe space.
Everyone should feel like they can speak up in meetings without being afraid that they’ll be judged for their opinion, or that their ideas or comments could be held against them. It’s important for teams to express themselves and feel trust among their team members in order to feel confident and comfortable in the workplace.
2. Treat your team with respect, always.
Come from the right place — it must be genuine. Most importantly, you have to show empathy. You should be able to think things through from an associate’s point of view. Taking the time to understand each member of your team, who they are, their goals both personal and professional, is not just about being friendly; it makes you better equipped to make decisions for the good of the team, and your team is more likely to trust those decisions.
When you do this, and it’s authentic, you build trust that goes both ways. As you lead by example, your team members then do the same with their teams and so forth. You can’t fake this. If you feel like it’s too hard, or you don’t have the time to consider your team’s viewpoint, perhaps you shouldn’t be managing anybody.
You have to remember that the relationship between a manager and their team is inherently unequal because the manager controls their team’s paychecks. This means, as a manager, you must always go the extra mile to build trust within your team.
By creating an employee-centric culture where the team feels comfortable sharing ideas because there is an open line of communication between team members and management, you will also organically create a culture of respect. The more authentic you are as a manager, the more your team will believe what you say, and feel inspired and motivated to do their best work.
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