Does your team trust you?

A recent survey found over a quarter (26%) of employees do not trust their CEO to be honest and transparent.  The same research found 28% of employees are not given a chance to share feedback with leadership on their experiences.  And less than half (46%) of employees feel 

that leadership in their organisation actually listens and acts on any feedback given from staff.

Listening is a key part of building trust.  Effective listening means ensuring there is a two-way conversation with employees - not only giving staff the opportunity to give feedback, but also demonstrating that their feedback is being carefully considered and addressed.  After all, no one wants to feel they are shouting into a void.

For business owners and leaders, this means thinking carefully about how to establish and maintain trust because trust is the basis of good culture and happy workers are more productive.  That’s not just for fluffy HR reasons – it makes cold, hard business sense to do so.  Have a look at some more stats if you’re not convinced yet:

*   In a BT call centre, happy workers were found to make more calls and turn more of those calls into sales resulting in a 13% increase in productivity;

*   A study by Glassdoor found that company culture is more important than salary when it comes to job satisfaction;

*  77% would consider a company’s culture before applying for a job there; and

*  Business units with engaged workers had 23% higher profits, lower absenteeism, less turnover and accidents and higher customer loyalty.

Do I trust my team?  And do they trust me?  Those are the key questions to ask.  If the answer is no, then the priority is to establish trust.  The job of managers has become ever more complex, start by listening to your team, ensuring they feel heard, and building good connections within the team.

If you’re unsure how to grasp the nettle and embed trust in your organisation, please get in touch – I’d love to help.