As leaders we tell ourselves that we want our staff to be creative and innovative in how they approach their work, we want to know what is going on across the business, we want employees to ask for help when they need it, and we want to have visibility on potential challenges before they become massive problems. However there is one important condition which must be present if any of these things are to happen.
And that is that employees must feel safe to express themselves. This is known as psychological safety, which is defined as an individual’s perception of taking a risk and the response his or her boss or teammates will have to him taking that risk.
A few years ago in Project Aristotle, Google set out to determine what it was that made their top teams successful and they established that the number one factor in a team’s effectiveness was psychological safety. Researchers overwhelmingly agree that engagement, creativity and innovation cannot flourish if you do not have a safe space for new ideas and risk-taking.
And we can only build psychological safety if we develop Trust in one another, which is why Trust is the second T in A.U.T.H.E.N.T.I.C leadership:
A = Awareness & Acceptance
U = Unique
T = Transformation
H = Head & Heart
E = Engage & Empower
N = North Star
T = Trust
I = Influence & Impact
C = Compassion, Courage & Curiosity
Trust is absolutely critical to authentic leadership and to high-performing teams – after all if we don’t trust someone they can say whatever they like about culture and values and purpose but it will not make an iota of difference to our performance.
And as a leader we cannot simply demand that our people trust us, we have to create an environment where people trust that we have their back, that we will do the right thing by them, otherwise they will continue to shy away from speaking up when they see something wrong, when they have made a mistake, when they need help or when they have a great idea. We must FEEL trust in order to bring our whole self to work.
After all is there anyone who has not kept an idea to themselves because they were afraid of being ridiculed or shot down in flames? Or not asked a clarifying question because they were afraid of looking stupid and being humiliated?
To share a personal story, when I was a young financial controller working with a company preparing to go through an IPO I hid my first pregnancy for four and a half months because I did not trust the CEO to award me a fair share of options once he knew I would be taking maternity leave. When we hide a critical element of ourselves at work we are expending energy on protecting our identity behind a mask (a vast subject which I have written about before) and we simply cannot perform at our best.
“Trust is the stacking and layering of small moments and reciprocal vulnerability over time. Trust and vulnerability grow together, and to betray one is to destroy the other.” says Brene Brown in her book Dare to Lead (if you have not read this yet, please go and buy it right now!)
To elaborate I could not point to one single thing which the CEO had done which made me feel this way, it was an accumulation of small comments about the value (or lack thereof) of the “back office” teams in a sales organisation, about his view of women taking maternity leave, about his prioritisation of sales people above all else.
So how can we build trust?
And remember that trust is built in all the small moments – not in one big annual team building junket! As Simon Sinek says in The Infinite Game:
“Trust must be continuously and actively cultivated.”
And it can only be activated by acting in accordance with our values and in doing what we say we will do, words are cheap after all.
So what small thing can you do today to help build trust in your team?
And that is that employees must feel safe to express themselves. This is known as psychological safety, which is defined as an individual’s perception of taking a risk and the response his or her boss or teammates will have to him taking that risk.
A few years ago in Project Aristotle, Google set out to determine what it was that made their top teams successful and they established that the number one factor in a team’s effectiveness was psychological safety. Researchers overwhelmingly agree that engagement, creativity and innovation cannot flourish if you do not have a safe space for new ideas and risk-taking.
And we can only build psychological safety if we develop Trust in one another, which is why Trust is the second T in A.U.T.H.E.N.T.I.C leadership:
A = Awareness & Acceptance
U = Unique
T = Transformation
H = Head & Heart
E = Engage & Empower
N = North Star
T = Trust
I = Influence & Impact
C = Compassion, Courage & Curiosity
Trust is absolutely critical to authentic leadership and to high-performing teams – after all if we don’t trust someone they can say whatever they like about culture and values and purpose but it will not make an iota of difference to our performance.
And as a leader we cannot simply demand that our people trust us, we have to create an environment where people trust that we have their back, that we will do the right thing by them, otherwise they will continue to shy away from speaking up when they see something wrong, when they have made a mistake, when they need help or when they have a great idea. We must FEEL trust in order to bring our whole self to work.
After all is there anyone who has not kept an idea to themselves because they were afraid of being ridiculed or shot down in flames? Or not asked a clarifying question because they were afraid of looking stupid and being humiliated?
To share a personal story, when I was a young financial controller working with a company preparing to go through an IPO I hid my first pregnancy for four and a half months because I did not trust the CEO to award me a fair share of options once he knew I would be taking maternity leave. When we hide a critical element of ourselves at work we are expending energy on protecting our identity behind a mask (a vast subject which I have written about before) and we simply cannot perform at our best.
“Trust is the stacking and layering of small moments and reciprocal vulnerability over time. Trust and vulnerability grow together, and to betray one is to destroy the other.” says Brene Brown in her book Dare to Lead (if you have not read this yet, please go and buy it right now!)
To elaborate I could not point to one single thing which the CEO had done which made me feel this way, it was an accumulation of small comments about the value (or lack thereof) of the “back office” teams in a sales organisation, about his view of women taking maternity leave, about his prioritisation of sales people above all else.
So how can we build trust?
- Listen – everyone wants to be seen and heard so actively listening to their stories and demonstrating empathy will go a long way to deepening the relationship.
- Ask for feedback and input – and then ensuring you address it and take action on it. Letting feedback fall into a blackhole is often worse than not asking in the first place.
- Be ready to trust others – this needs to be a reciprocal understanding so if you demonstrate no trust in your staff do not expect them to trust you. If control is your thing then this one will push all your buttons, however you will have to relinquish some control, and give people some freedom around how they do their job.
- Demonstrate vulnerability – when you are a leader who has been raised on always having the answer, always being right and being the “tough” one then this is really hard. Sharing some of the your stories about when you have struggled or had to ask for help can empower others to speak up.
- Tell the truth – being honest and as transparent as possible makes a huge difference (and yes I understand that disclosure requirements and commercial sensitivity around transactions sometimes means full transparency is not possible). When there is a vacuum, people fill it with their own stories and interpretations.
- Incentivise behaviours which reward trust – all too often organisations provide bonuses and rewards based purely on results outcomes, with no regard for how they were achieved. This has been all too apparent in the scandals within financial services, as exposed by the Royal Commission. Metrics around performance are important but if they are the only metrics used employees and managers will soon see what is really important within the organisation and act accordingly (regardless of the values posted on the wall).
And remember that trust is built in all the small moments – not in one big annual team building junket! As Simon Sinek says in The Infinite Game:
“Trust must be continuously and actively cultivated.”
And it can only be activated by acting in accordance with our values and in doing what we say we will do, words are cheap after all.
So what small thing can you do today to help build trust in your team?
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