Building trust through connecting leadership

Many organisations are struggling when it comes to employee engagement. “Engagement” refers to the strong connection with the work and colleagues, and goes hand in hand with purposefulness and seizing learning opportunities. And yes, engagement pays off for organisations in terms of productivity, quality and returns.

Trust is crucial

Researchers[1] who focused on engagement point to the importance of trust. Their surveys, combined with measurements of stress and happiness hormones, showed that employees in organisations with a strong culture of trust are more productive, have more energy at work, collaborate better with their colleagues and stay longer in the organisation. These employees also suffered less from chronic stress and were happier, which in turn promoted their performance.

Nourishing trust

If trust is so important, the question becomes: how do you nourish a culture of trust?

In our Connecting Leadership trainings, we go into detail on creating a context that promotes employee well-being and results in productivity and innovative power. Nonviolent Communication is an excellent framework for getting started with the action points below.

Concrete action points

Recognise excellence

Express your appreciation for goals achieved, but also for the small and large gestures that employees and colleagues make. Do it directly, regularly, unexpectedly, personally and publicly. Your example can inspire others too!

Create achievable challenges

When you give a team a difficult but achievable task, team members start to focus and strengthen their bonds. Depending on each other stimulates efficient behaviour. But watch out: check progress regularly and adjust goals that are too easy or too difficult!

Give people autonomy to find their own path to the goal

Being trusted and being allowed to figure things out yourself is a major motivator and stimulates innovation. Follow-up and risk assessments remain necessary, but approaches that work can serve as “good practices” that lead to recognition and inspire others.

Make room for job crafting

Giving teams the trust to come up with a task distribution that takes into account the talents and ambitions of team members ensures that employees focus their energy on what’s close to their heart. Managing such teams requires clear objectives and sufficient feedback on results. Another opportunity for recognition!

Make sure information is shared broadly

Organisations that communicate their “flight plan” to employees take away the uncertainty about which direction is being taken and why. This requires sustained communication with enough room for daily, direct contact.

Invest in relationships

The biological mechanisms that nourish trust are deeply rooted in our bodies and go back to expressions of interest in and involvement with each other. That’s why it makes sense to invest not only in clear objectives, but also in engaged relationships. Take time to get to know each other, beyond the professional context!

Promote the growth of the whole person

Acquiring new job skills is not enough. Employee performance benefits from a balanced focus on personal and professional growth.

Show your own vulnerability

As a leader, demonstrate how safe it is and be open with your team about uncertainties, mistakes and problems. Asking for help is effective because it appeals to our human impulse to collaborate.

[1] Paul J. Zak, Trust Factor: The Science of Creating High-Performance Companies (AMACOM, 2017)