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How To Cement Trust In Your Organization

Forbes Coaches Council

Dominik Szot, Founder/CEO of MIA. Leadership coach, global entrepreneur, agile leadership mentor, focused on leaders' legacy.

"As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live."

Two hundred years after Goethe's Mephistopheles in Faust said this famous sentence about self-trust, Oprah Winfrey also mentioned that there is no relationship without trust. This includes not only relationships with others but also connections with yourself. That's why keeping promises to yourself is so important—to hold yourself accountable and remain trustworthy.

People who are trustworthy unexpectedly get new proposals for development from others because trust ensures the security of a new business. So when you are good at something and people believe in you, they tend to offer you new jobs and opportunities for growth. It usually comes from delivering what was promised despite difficulties. That's why from a long-term life perspective, resilience strongly supports gaining trust. Being professional in something helps build and increase trust and being resilient doubles in both professionalism and trust.

Trust begins with trusting yourself, and people with self-trust can more easily extend trust to others and believe in their own abilities. But trust goes both ways—it also needs to be given and extended to others. Giving trust does risk some disappointment, but it can pay off. When people trust each other, they work better together and can work faster, more efficiently and successfully. That’s why Stephen M.R. Covey's formula works: Trust = trustworthiness x trusting.

There is also a reverse correlation between speed and costs with respect to trust. When it goes down, speed will go down while costs will increase. When trust increases, speed rises and costs fall. Research from Covey shows that the very best workplaces are where there is trust between managers and employees.

Trust within an organization creates a safe environment where people are more engaged and committed because they feel important and valuable. It clarifies why organizations are responsible for building an appropriate work atmosphere, where a much broader version of trust appears and operates at the group level; it's called psychological safety. It appears when there is a climate of comfort and freedom and people can express themselves and feel no embarrassment or fear when they commit mistakes. In such an environment, people trust their colleagues and show them respect, there is a higher collaboration between departments and individuals in the organization tend to feel more committed.

Such organizations—according to Amy Edmondson, professor of leadership and management at the Harvard Business School—can become fearless. Workers in a fearless organization generally feel the future is much clearer and more attractive. In order to create an appropriate climate at work to feel free and contribute ideas without fear leaders are expected to take good care of psychological safety.

Let's look at a few ways leaders can build trust in their organizations:

• Trust requires clear values. So define your organization's values and ensure that leaders and managers behave according to those values. Don't just hold them up in front of your employees or plaster them on a wall. When teams and the individuals in the organization represent these values, they create the fundamental pillars of organizational trust: transparency, inspection and adaptation.

• Focus on employees and their good intentions, proposals and improvements. When leaders are truly committed and know how to manage, lead and inspire, there are more followers who want to support them. Admit when you're wrong and stay accountable for your mistakes

• Take a 360 assessment to learn what needs to be improved. Don't remain blind to your own deficiencies.

Trust brings a lot of benefits, including new friendships, support when difficulties come our way and unexpected new chances. As a leader, I know that trust cements everything that we are doing in life and business—that's why it's necessary to practice it every day.


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