The importance of trust is often overlooked by organisations and their leaders. As trust is intangible, it can be difficult to assess without a mechanism in place to measure it by. We’ve found that most organisations lack such means of measurement, so trust falls by the wayside. This may leave you wondering if trust is the root of some issues within your organisation and leadership team so we’re going to share common issues leaders who we’ve worked with have faced.
Attracting and Retaining Top Talent
In the ‘talent war’, a high trust culture is critical in retaining the best in the business. We’ve found that 89% of board leaders consider trust and important factor in attracting and retaining top talent. Staff want to be trusting and trusted. They want to trust their leadership team to make the right decisions at the right time to suit not just the business, but its employees too. They also want to feel trusted by their leadership team to get on with the job in hand. Things such as micromanaging and poor communication can severely impact an employee’s trust which leaves an organisation at risk of losing their best staff.
Keeping the Customer’s Trust
People tend not to buy from businesses they do not trust, it’s as simple as that. A business’ brand reputation is also an important factor in building a high trust culture. In fact, our research found that 91% of leaders think trust is important in maintaining customer loyalty. Social media also plays a huge role in today’s relationship with customers. One viral post about how poorly someone was treated by a company and thousands of potential customers become alienated. Our advice is to always be transparent with customers as you would with staff.
Knowing When to Intervene
Knowing what to do and when to do it when it comes to trust can be very difficult for leaders, particularly those who are new to the role or the idea of trust at work. Employees want to see colleagues treated fairly as this will cement their trust in the leadership team. When this is not the case, trust is broken amongst staff, both with colleagues and leaders. Being open, consistent and fair with rewards and discipline is the best way to gain and maintain trust.
The best way to address trust issues within an organisation is to implement a mechanism to measure exactly where trust is being gained and where it is being lost. Then, leaders can act accordingly to ensure trust is maintained across the board. The Nine Habits of Trust model offers organisations the chance to discover the best ways of gaining trust and is the only academically verified behavioural model of trust in the world.
