Tip of the day: Focus on (re) building trust!
We have just closed the weekend, the time when -fortunately- social life increases. Human beings crave and need social interaction to grow, relax, heal, develop, and be happy. In general, ranging from those that go out to restaurants and pubs to the more risk-averse who limit their interactions to close family and friends, it is mostly during the weekends that our social personas come out in full force. Have you paid attention to what happens during this time? Have you noticed how your behavior and that of others change?
I am among those who keep a somewhat limited social bubble, mostly hanging out with close colleagues and friends at their homes. However, I discovered that when we get together, we are much more relaxed about physical distancing and mask-wearing. This got me thinking. Why do we feel safe to do so? Are we being irresponsible? The answer I came up is simple but powerful: we do it because we trust each other! We are not irresponsible. We feel safe because we trust that each one of us is doing the utmost to avoid being contaminated. No one can guarantee that things will always go right or that none of us will ever get the virus, however there is an unwritten agreement whereby we all pledge to take care of each other by taking care of ourselves as best we can. We have never explicitly discussed any of this, but I am convinced that if we ask, we’ll conclude that we all have the same tacit understanding.
If I were to find out that any in my bubble is not being careful enough, the trust would be broken and most likely I would no longer want to hang out with that person without a mask and the expected physical distance. Our friendship would remain untarnished but the trust would have cracked and it is very likely that, with time, even our friendship will be affected if we don’t take timely corrective action.
It is my strong believe that a similar situation occurs daily in our teams, our neighborhoods and our families. There are plenty of spoken and unspoken commitments that allow our interactions to be smooth, productive and pleasant. Whenever any of such commitment is broken, our interactions suffer and the results derived from them decline. Just as I would no longer want to hang out with someone who would not adhere to safety protocols, managers and team members would have a very hard time working with someone who is not delivering or responding as expected, or who is not playing by the rules, or who is abusing the system or the good faith of other team members.
Perhaps the guidance provided by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman, based on the 360 degrees assessments of 87,000 leaders, might prove useful to you in building, re-building or reinforcing trust. After all, trust is the bond that turns group of people into teams and the fuel that ignites innovation, productivity and well being in those teams. According to Zenger and Folkman, there are three main elements of trust:
Positive Relationships;
Good judgment; and,
Consistency.
Take a look at the article and let me know what you think about it. Have you broken any of your team’s explicit or implicit rules? Do you need to repair a relationship within your group of friends, family or colleagues? I invite you to start today and use this week to design and launch your reconstruction strategy. GO FOR IT!