Creating a Culture of Trust

I’ve been thinking about trust and the impact it has on organizational effectiveness. I am fully aware that the promotion of personal “self-interest” and other forms of organizational politics will always be part of any group of people. But where does this aspect of human nature start to significantly deter an organization from achieving its goals?

It is hard to argue that individual performance can be adversely affected when relationships within the organization lack trust. But the more interesting question is…How much more effective can individuals become when there is a high degree of trust both within their peer group and across the entire organization? If trust is a required catalyst for creating and sustaining a high performing organization, then can the lack of trust subvert an otherwise smart business strategy? To what degree does the lack of trust prevent individuals from maximizing the contribution that they can make to the organization? I submit that the answers to all of these questions are worth exploring.

As a leader, you are responsible for the culture that exists within your organization. A wise person once said that any meaningful organizational change must start with the truth. Assessing the current level of trust within your organization requires an openness to exploring the truth. Individual relationships are inherently complex and influenced by prior interactions, comfort with vulnerability, existence of common, mutually beneficial goals, and personal credibility and confidence. At the root of many low trust relationships is an inability to effectively acknowledge and manage these influencers. Without diving too deep into the psychological tendencies of your team members, it is important for a leader to understand what each of your team members require to form trusting relationships. If you don’t make the effort to understand this, you will most likely preside over a team and organization that has not achieved its full potential.

Here are some of the questions that I would recommended exploring to help uncover the truth about what might be impacting your organization’s level of trust:

• What are the things you do that either promote or obstruct trust within your team?

• Why are you not requiring all members of your team to formulate and publically express their point of view on the most critical issues facing the organization?

• Why are there “meetings after the meeting” where team members express their true opinions?

• What is causing mis-alignments to surface after you thought that you had achieved full alignment from your team?

• Have you created an environment where team members are confident enough in their current roles to vigorously express their point of view and not fear losing respect and/or credibility if their ideas are challenged or even proven wrong?

Two final thoughts….

An organization is often only as strong as their weakest member

Creating an organizational culture built on trust can raise the performance of all members of the team