Why Trust is Essential in Leadership

We have probably heard, trust takes years to build, seconds to break and forever to repair.

In modern business parlance, “trust” has become a buzzword as a golden ticket or fast lane to competitive advantage. There has been a lot of talk about trust, with carefully crafted speeches and reach-out initiatives, yet, despite all, genuine trust remains elusive.  Today, trust in leaders is incredibly low.

Here are the top ways that diminished trust impacts teams:

Employees Disengage: When employees don’t trust their leaders, they check out emotionally and mentally and are more likely to quit when a new opportunity arises.  They will likely do the bare minimal at best and can become toxic and hostile to the company at worst.

Employees Don’t Listen: If people can’t trust your word, quite simply, they’re unlikely to listen to it.  Leaders who demonstrate inconsistency between what they say and what they do, employees take notice, that your word is not trustworthy.

Employees Stop Innovating: When trust is eroded by their leadership, employees are unwilling to innovate, speak up, or take calculated risks.  This is a fundamental part of psychological safety, often cited as one of the core dynamics of high-performing teams, if not, productivity plummets and inefficiency thrives.

Miscommunication: Employees tend to build walls to protect themselves when there is a lack of trust.  This has a negative impact on inter-team communication which can increase the likelihood of mistakes which impact on quality of work.

The reality is that leaders hold the key in restoring trust with their employees, by being self-aware and demonstrating to their team that they are trustworthy, modeling positive behaviors to employees and sticking to their word.

Leaders must try to determine the root cause of the broken trust; in that way you can tactically look at which element is missing to start repairing trust.

Leader can also complete an audit of these four elements that comprise trust, competence, reliability, sincerity and care is a good place to start.  It is then you can set some action steps for improvement.

In conclusion, we live in a world weary of manipulation and broken promises, people seek genuine integrity.  By shifting the focus from talking about trust to consistently demonstration trustworthiness, leaders and organizations can create an environment where trust will naturally emerge.