Trust is increasingly recognised as a precondition for employee engagement and organisational success. Management guru Peter Drucker has observed that 'organisations are no longer built on force, but on trust'.
Yet research published this month by the ILM shows that almost a third of the British workforce do not trust their CEO, although a higher number do have more trust in their line manager.
Six Fundamental Factors
The Index identifies and measures the six factors that are required for trust to develop and grow. These are ability, understanding, fairness, openness, integrity and consistency. At all levels of leadership, demonstrable ability to do the job is the number one deciding factor as to whether trust can develop.
Trust for CEOs
In the case of CEOs, confidence in their competence to do the job is matched by the importance of their demonstrating personal integrity. Together, these two qualities are the outstanding factors that influence employee perception of trustworthiness. CEOs of large organisations, especially in the public sector, fare worst - with leaders of smaller private organisations being trusted more widely. Proximity influences perception.
Line Managers and Trust
What drives trust in line managers is more complex. Again, their ability to do the job is paramount. However, other factors are also seen as extremely important. Personal integrity - being seen to strive to be fair in decision making - is again a core prerequisite for trust. But other even more influential factors here are openness, showing an understanding of employees' needs and abilities, treating them fairly and showing concern for the welfare of others.
Interestingly, consistency (behaving in a reliable and predictable way) is regarded as less important, suggesting that people are tolerant of variable behaviour as long as the manager is seen to be generally fair, open and understanding.
What can you do as a manager to increase trust?
Looking at the conclusions of the ILM study, the emphasis on qualities such as openness, understanding and fairness suggests that high levels of emotional intelligence are valuable in building trust.
It's often when you are under pressure yourself as a manager that it's easy to forget to take the time to model the qualities described above. Developing trust takes time and patience. And it can be destroyed very quickly.
So what can you work on in order to build trust?
- developing your ability to do your job effectively
- being seen to make an effort to be honest and fair in your decision making
- displaying understanding and knowledge of people's roles and responsibilities
- behaving fairly and showing concern for the welfare of others
- being accessible and open to ideas and opinions
- being reliable and doing what you say you will do
"Trust is the essential precondition upon which all real success depends. Without it, sustainable change cannot be built or maintained. Yet, increasingly, we find ourselves in a world where our methods to address distrust are insufficient."Julio Olalla, Founder of Newfield Network