You can build it, earn it, erode it, destroy it.

But what exactly is 'it'? 

And why is it crucial to your career & business success?

‘It’ is what the world’s pre-eminent business and political leaders focused on at this year’s World Economic Forum. 

·        Security & stability?

·        Economic Growth?

·        Natural capital?

·        Technological innovation?

All great guesses and, given heightening concerns in our uncertain and fracturing world, you’d certainly be forgiven for thinking these topics were ‘it’ - but you’d be wrong. 

For while world leaders at Davos recently explored all these issues, they did so through one particular lens: The lens of TRUST.

Why trust?

Simply put: An absence of trust results in an absence of progress.

Trust is foundational to any collaboration; be in a team of five, an organisation of 5,000, or a World Forum of leaders from 50 countries.

As Patrick Lencioni, best-selling author of the classic business book ‘the Five Dysfunctions of a Team’ says:

 “If we can’t build trust the ceiling for success is going to be very, very, low.”

The Fragility of Trust

The trouble is trust is fragile. It can take time to build and only seconds to destroy. Just ask Gerald Ratner. 

Ratner joined his family’s London-based jewellery business in the 1960s, where he worked his way up to Chief Executive. At its height the Ratner Group had over 2,500 stores and an annual turnover of near-on £200m.

Then, in a single speech with these two sentences, Ratner broke the trust of his customers, investors, and employees. “People say, ‘How can you sell this for such a low price?’ I say, ‘Because it’s total crap’.”

Overnight Ratner lost his entire empire.

What we say and do, and how we say and do it either increases, decreases, or (in Ratner’s case) eliminates trust – and that determines how high both our careers and companies climb or fall. 

How to build trust and become a trusted (& trusting) leader

Building trust means you have to be trustworthy. But trustworthiness alone doesn’t cut it. You need to go beyond that and also trust others.

So how do you become trustworthy

In their book, ‘The Trusted Advisor’, Maister, Galford and Green helpfully offer a model identifying the four components that make someone trustworthy. The authors refer to this model as ‘The Trust Equation’. 

1. Credibility: Do others see you as competent, capable, and credentialed? In other words, do you know your stuff and share it with confidence and clarity? 

2. Reliability: Can others trust you to do what you say you’ll do? In other words, do you consistently walk the talk and deliver? 

3. Intimacy: Do others feel secure when dealing with you? In other words, do you handle your interactions with them and the information they share with decency? 

4. Self-orientation: Do others believe you’re selfish and/or self-obsessed? In other words, do you care about others and the greater good, or are you only in it for yourself?

To become trustworthy, you need high levels of credibility, reliability and intimacy and low levels of self-orientation. And all four components must be present and balanced.

Becoming a more trusting leader

But trust isn’t a one-way street. For it to work, you not only need to be trustworthy but trusting. And that can be challenging for leaders - for to trust is to risk.

Here are three common signs that you’re not as trusting a leader as you think you are: 

1. You get nervous when your team members work from home. 
   

   Nothing bulldozes trust more than the suggestion that someone requires your watchful eyes on them to do their job. 
   

   Instead, shift your focus away from where or when someone works, and provide them with clarity around what you expect them to deliver and by when. Affording someone greater flexibility over where they work gives them the opportunity to demonstrate their trustworthiness – both their reliability to deliver and their ability to think beyond their own, self-orientated, workplace needs. 
   

2. You micromanage because someone, at some point, will let something slip. 
   
   When you don’t trust others to do their job it eats away at your time and productivity while at the same time eroding their confidence and motivation. 

   
   Ask yourself: What’s the minimum I need to see to feel reassured that everything’s on track? This way you allow others to demonstrate their trustworthiness and as you get used to letting go a bit more show them you are more trusting too.

3. You favour some team members over others when distributing work. 
   

   In our time-pressured environment it’s tempting to only give stretch projects to those who have already proven trustworthy. 
   

   Yet stretch projects lead to development and recognition, which eventually leads to promotion. So relying on the same few trusted individuals, is a flawed long-term talent strategy. 
   
   Instead ask someone beyond your trusted circle to take the lead but have a more established colleague mentor them.

In general, a good way to become a more trusting leader is to start from an assumption of good intent by others.
 
Unless, of course, they give you reason not to.
 
And that leads us nicely onto broken trust and how to rebuild it.

Broken trust and re-building it

What happens if you break trust, or you inherit a team or organisation where trust has already been broken?
 
Can it be rebuilt?
 
The evidence would seem to suggest it’s possible, yes.

We love stories of redemption but a big part of why we love them is because they are never easy.
 
“I’m sorry are the two most healing words in the English language,” says Dr Harriet Lerner, psychologist. In her book: ‘Why won’t you apologize?’ Lerner explores how these two tiny words, when delivered well, can heal broken connections and help restore trust.
 
Yet, as the trust equation suggests, while saying 'I'm sorry' can be a good start to rebuilding trust (intimacy), it’s their combination with action (reliability) that determines whether trust can be rebuilt.

The elasticity of trust

But how much elasticity does trust have? How many opportunities do we get to bulldoze and rebuild it?

This seems to be a far-less researched area and the answer will no doubt be complex - spanning how widespread trust is broken and by whom.

That said, there’s one saying that leaders certainly ought to keep front of mind when reflecting on building trust and their own trustworthiness:

“Fool me once. shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

February 2024

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