Why Trust is a Must in Management
May 20, 2008 by David Zinger
Filed under management
by David Zinger
Are you creating high levels of trust as a manger.
Foundation of trust. Ms. Barabara Bowes, wrote the column Trust Me: It takes more than words to earn trust of staff, customers in The Winnipeg Free Press. She provided a sound rationale why trust is a must:
Trust is the foundation of all relationships. When they feel trusted, employees can enjoy a peace of mind and know that the decisions they make within their authority level will be respected. They feel excited and energized about work, communication opens up and teams collaborate to get the job done. Without trust, employees experience confusion, fear and job insecurity while the organization itself becomes dysfunctional.
Predictable, community, togetherness.Barbara Misztal in Trust in Modern Societies: The Search for the Bases of Social Order outlined 3 basic things that trust does in the lives of people, trust:
- makes social life predictable
- creates a sense of community
- makes it easier for people to work together
Coin a phrase. In the United States all the coins have the statement: IN GOD WE TRUST.
At the local level of a business or organization do you trust the organization, the leaders, and the managers?
Shake the rust off of trust. Take a quick assessment of trust by responding to the following 5 questions:
- Who do you most trust at work? Why?
- Who do you mistrust or distrust at work? Why?
- What conditions create trust for you at work?
- How do you create trusting relationships as a manager?
- (Complete the following sentence) When I feel or experience trust at work I ….
Photo Credit: In God we trust by http://flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/1303402061/
Trust and Leadership would be a better title! Without trust in management or leadership then how can you follow?
Scott:
Good point, I’ll manage to use leadership next time because without trust leaderSHIP sinks.
David
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I believe that the root of trust is in honest revealing communication. Showing some weakness and the fact that yes, you can be wrong, is the fastest way to build trust with others.
…When I feel or experience trust at work, I’ve usually stepped out of my comfort zone or experienced someone else doing the same.
Mike:
Trust: honest, revealing, comfortable with weakness and error. good points.
I so much appreciate your point about the link between trust and stepping out of comfort zones.
Thanks for the comment.
David
I don’t trust mangers.
Janelle:
All managers or just the ones you have worked with?
David
I have much more trust in a manager who has the guts to say “I don’t know.” A manager who can say “I was wrong” is probably a good leader. A manager who can change course when he’s wrong is more often right than one who must stick to a wrong course - and drag everyone along - just to save face.
Kathy,
A similar theme seems to be developing in the comments. Being human (ignorance, errors, etc.) can help us build trust and also trust.
David
One thing about leadership and trust is that the leader MUST be willing to trust his/her staff FIRST rather than having the staff trust him/her.
Scott,
Trust begins with us. Good point.
David
What is all the noise about management? Manager namage assets and people - leaders inspire, lead, create vision, etc. - I’d rather follow a leader than a manager!
As to leaders, they have to inspire, be truthful, honest not only to themselves but to everyone. The term “fake-it til you make-it” cannot be applied to leadership because people can sense the deceit. Leadership is a 24/7 job and always in the spotlight.
Leaders have to build a trusting relationship with their staff. If you can’t trust the leader then why follow him/her? And if the leader has no followers then they are out taking a stroll by themself!
I was told by an ‘old salt’ (navy) the meaning of leadership. He stated that the Commander instructed each seaman (individually) to move a heavy chain piled in one room and pile it in another room. The only way to move the chain was to pick up the one end and drag it behind themself, stop and pick up a section lower down the chain and drag that up until the entire chain was in the other room.
Afterwards the Commander would ask the seamen what they learned in the exercise. He would state that the exercise was on leadership. That as a leader one has to ‘pull’ the others by leading the way (or being an example) because a leader can not ‘push’ others to go where he/she wants them to go.
Scott,
I appreciated the chain story and the difference between pulling and pushing.
David