To be successful as a manager, it is important to develop a relationship with the team that is based on trust. When employees trust and respect their boss, they will make a special effort, especially when they feel trusted and supported.
Employees rarely stand out under the punitive thumb of someone they don’t trust and who they feel doesn’t trust them. Without trust, productivity suffers as team members play politics, spend time taking cover and complying with dictates they know are counterproductive. Lack of trust affects morale and customer satisfaction, as employees shift their energy and focus from working on real-life issues affecting customers to resentment and dissatisfaction toward management.
Effective communication
Managers who communicate openly and often build relationships and trust with the team. They should not make team members guess what they are thinking, but should tell them. Employees may feel that the absence of news is bad news. Lack of interaction erodes trust. Face-to-face interaction is the best method to build trust.
To gain trust, managers need to give trust
It is important for a manager to create an environment of trust. This starts with trusting others. It is more effective to assume that employees are trustworthy unless they prove otherwise, rather than waiting to give trust when it has not been earned. As team members feel that their manager trusts them, it will be easier for them to trust in return.
Be honest
Honesty is a very important factor that affects trust. Managers who demonstrate openness about their actions, intentions, and vision soon find that people respond positively to openness and self-disclosure. As a manager, share the good and bad news openly. This can eliminate gossip and spread inappropriate policies. Great managers know that they are not perfect and they make mistakes. It is better for a manager to admit mistakes rather than ignore or cover them up. A cover-up (perceived or real) is probably the biggest enemy to trust.
Establish strong business ethics
Managers must establish moral values for the workplace. Teams with a common ethic are healthier, more productive, adaptable, responsive, and resourceful because they are united under a common set of values.
keep your word
Do what you say you will do and make your actions visible. Team members quickly pick up on insincerity and broken promises. Visibly keeping commitments will build trust. If a manager refuses to make the actions visible to the team, he may create the impression/perception that he does not carry them out.
Keep interactions consistent and predictable
Building trust is a process. Trust results from consistent and predictable interaction over time. If a manager responds differently from week to week, it becomes harder to trust him or her.
Set the tone for the future from the start
The manager’s initial actions establish norms and expectations. A manager must lead by example.
Be accessible and responsive
Find ways to be regularly available to team members. When you interact, be receptive. The lack of response causes discomfort and distrust. Be action oriented rather than talk oriented. Don’t just think about acting, do it!
Keep Confidence
Team members must be able to raise concerns, identify issues, share confidential information, and bring relevant issues to light. It is important to reach an agreement at the outset on how sensitive data will be handled.
take care of your language
It is important that a manager’s language does not imply “we” or “them.” The terminology should be easy to understand. Leaders must stick to business language and not use strong or vulgar language.
Create social time for the team
A lot of trust and confidence is built through informal social interaction. Successful managers make sure social opportunities happen regularly.
Building trust with employees is critical to creating an effective team that works well together. Taking the time to build trust will pay off for managers that last a long time.