When I step back and reflect on all the different leaders and organizations I have been working with for the last six months, here are the successful pathways to building trust that I am witnessing.
First, these leaders role model trusty worthy behaviors. The late Stephen Covey in his book, The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness (Free Press, 2004), writes that there are four key leadership behaviors, namely role modeling, pathfinding, aligning and empowering. He notes that role modeling inspires trust.
From my perspective, a key element to role modeling is when we choose to not tolerate dehumanizing language or behavior. Michelle Maiese, the chair of the philosophy department at Emmanuel College defines this as “the psychological process of demonizing the enemy, making them seem less human and hence not worthy of humane treatment.” Dehumanizing starts when we “lose our ability to listen, communication, and practice even a modicum of empathy.”
Pathfinding creates order in the midst of adaptation, notes Covey. In his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni asks the question “How does a team go about building trust?” He explains that “Unfortunately vulnerability-based trust cannot be achieved overnight.” From my vantage point, pathfinding and building team trust are interconnected. They require the creation of shared experiences over time, and multiple instances of follow-through which builds credibility. Finally, it requires an in-depth understanding of the unique attributes of different team members. Think First, Break All The Rules and strengths based leadership. When we co-create the plan about how to move forward, we are building trust and maintaining trust.
Covey writes that aligning nourishes both vision and empowerment. However, John Doerr in his book, Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs (Portfolio, 2018) reminds us that “… alignment is rare.” Studies suggest that only 7 percent of employees “fully understand their company’s business strategies and what’s expected of them in order to help achieve the common goals…. A lack of alignment, according to a poll of global CEOs, is the number-one obstacle between strategy and execution.”
Empowering unleashes human potential, according to Covey. In the midst of a global pandemic, we are expecting employees to execute flawlessly and efficiently with no mistakes, consistent outcomes, and to document everything. I get this on one level but I also remember the comments by Amy Edmondson in her article, “The Competitive Imperative of Learning” in the July-August 2008 issue of the Harvard Business Review. As she writes, “... flawless execution cannot guarantee enduring success in a knowledge economy…. great execution is difficult to sustain not because people get tired of working hard but because the managerial mind-set that enables efficient execution inhibits employee’s ability to learn and innovate.”
As Edmondson explains, execution-as-efficiency requires discipline, respect for for systems and an attention to detail. Often the management mind-set to motivate employees to be efficient is to utilize carrots (pay more for work completed) or sticks (reprimand or threat of job loss). The outcome of these choices is an undercurrent of fear. Low psychological safety and high accountability for meeting demanding goals yields people working in an anxiety zone.
The solution is to teach your managers how to motivate and empower people without using carrots or sticks. We do this by defining the company’s strategic direction and constantly articulating mission. We also provide routine feedback in the form of coaching rather than constructive criticism. Finally, we focus on helping people to learn.
When we role model, path find, align and empower, we create the focus to deal with what matters, and the capacity to execute and deal with making it happen.
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