Trust is the glue that holds any group together. Whether you are part of a small team or leading a department of hundreds, trust is necessary to create an environment in which everyone feels comfortable speaking their mind, taking risks, and supporting one another to succeed. Trust isn’t something that can be faked; it is either present in your organization or it isn’t. When you can trust your coworkers, teammates, and leaders to have your back and put the good of the group above their own personal interests, you have built a safe space for authentic collaboration. On the other hand, distrust leads to gossip and backstabbing, fear of failure and risk-aversion, closed minds and unproductive meetings – all things we hope to avoid at work!
Understand why trust is so important in the workplace.
Trust is fundamental to the success of any organization. Without it, employees will be reluctant to explore new ideas and take risks, innovation will be stifled, and the organization will lose out to its much more confident competition. The level of trust in your organization can be measured with a trust index, rating how much employees trust their leaders and each other. If trust is low, you may need to take steps to rebuild it, such as holding focus groups to understand what’s behind the lack of trust and implementing new policies and practices to increase it. When employees trust each other and their leaders, they are more likely to share ideas, take initiative, and support one another. They will also feel safer speaking up about problems in the workplace, because they know the issue won’t be ignored.
By Tharith Phoung