Imagine going to the newsagent’s shop to buy ice cream for your children, only to find that the freezer had been locked shut. You then got embroiled in a heated debate after persuading the newsagent to take an ice cream out for you. Should you hand over the money first, or should he hand over the ice cream? Ultimately, you managed to resolve the issue by using some fancy simultaneous exchange routine. It would be like that to live in a world without trust.
Now imagine going to the hospital for an operation.
Would you want to do business with a person who was 99% honest?
Sydney Madwed
Trust and Customer Service
Organisations that deliver excellent service have the trust thing off pat:
A couple of months ago, my wife bought a bed from John Lewis. The beauty of buying a bed and having it delivered is that you can also pay to have the old one taken away (a painful job if you don’t own a van). Unfortunately, my wife neglected to do this, which led to some heated words. So, on the morning of the delivery, I phoned up the store, hoping they would take a payment over the phone.
The van arrived a couple of hours later to deliver the bed. When I asked them to take the old one away, the driver looked at his paperwork and said:
“We don’t have an instruction to do that, Sir.”
Here we go, I thought. So I explained the situation and that I didn’t have a receipt as proof. Did the driver phone back? Did he drive off? Did we get into a long and tortuous debate? No, he just said:
“Sorry about the mix-up Sir; it would be a terrible world if we didn’t trust our customers.”
Then he took the old bed and left. The moral of the story is that business works better when there is trust. Oh, and buy your beds from John Lewis, and your lights, and your carpets. I will.
A Small Word with a Big Meaning
Trust is difficult to nail, though we all know what it means. A dictionary definition reads something like this
Trust –noun
- reliance on a person or thing’s integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc.
- confident expectation of something; hope.
- the obligation or responsibility imposed on a person in whom confidence or authority is placed: a position of trust.
When we trust somebody or something, we leave ourselves exposed or vulnerable, but we get a dividend in doing so. There is an upside to taking the risk.
It’s a social thing
Human beings are social animals, and work is a social environment. For a business to be successful, it needs to have good relationships with its customers and employees. You need to know, like, and trust people to have good relationships. Trust is a hugely important part of being human. We have a natural disposition to trust and to judge trustworthiness. Have you ever asked a passing stranger to take a picture of you and your family with your lovely new expensive camera?
Getting it Wrong
The trouble with trust is that it is easy to break, and once it is damaged, it is costly to fix. Trust is not just about personal relationships. You can break it at different levels.
- At a personal level, the implication of not trusting your boss can be hugely distressing.
- For public figures, breaking trust has massive ramifications. Think of Tiger Woods damaging his reputation when he cheated on his wife.
- For businesses, a lack of trust can lead to bankruptcy.
- Within society, a lack of trust can have substantial economic implications. How much did the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley regulations cost the economy?
Trust is the lubricant of society. Without it, things grind to a halt.
When the love has gone
Fear drives a lack of trust. Fear that you will look bad, not hit your target, be undermined or shouted at. Fear of the boss.
Research shows that only 49% of employees trust senior management, and only 28% believe CEOs are credible sources of information. We can question the research, but what is your gut reaction. Have you ever worked somewhere where you didn’t trust your boss? How did it feel?
Leadership without mutual trust is a contradiction in terms.
Warren Benni
According to Steven Covey, when you don’t trust somebody, it usually comes down to one of four reasons:
- Intent: motives and purpose aren’t clear.
- Integrity: the ends don’t justify the means.
- Capability: the skill and knowledge aren’t there to deliver.
- Results: quite simply, there aren’t any
These four reasons manifest themselves in a host of negative behaviours:
- Facts are manipulated or distorted, and half-truths are spun to people’s advantage.
- Mistakes are buried and not learned from.
- People routinely underpromise and overdeliver.
- It becomes essential to get the credit.
- People seize any opportunity to play the blame game with both hands.
- Knowledge becomes power, and it is withheld and hoarded.
- Gossip spreads. The “undiscussable” is discussed in corridors and coffee bars.
- Employees stifle new ideas at birth; they are either threatening or risky.
None of these will improve your business.
The Goldilocks Syndrome
There is lots of advice about behaviour and how to create a trusting environment, but essentially it boils down to treating others the way you would like to be treated yourself.
That bed is too hard. That bed is too soft. That bed is just right
Goldilocks
Trying too hard is as bad as not trying hard enough when creating a trusting environment. Think about some of the components of trust.
Reliability
Not doing what you said you would do is a sure way to destroy trust, but consistently delivering precisely on time and never asking for an extension is as bad. Is this person a man or a machine? What magic are they using? Why am I paying so much if it is this easy for them?
Honesty
Telling lies will break trust remarkably quickly when you get found out. The other side of the coin, being brutally honest all the time, is not necessarily that helpful either.
“Yes, your bum does look big in that” is a phrase I would advise against using.
Trustfulness
As my John Lewis story expounded, trusting people is a great way to get them to trust you back in return. It is an obvious message. However, repeatedly trusting people who are “shifty, devious and not to be trusted” makes those around you doubt your judgment. Once again, too much is too much.
The American scholar Suzanne Massie met Ronald Reagan many times while he was president of the United States. She taught him the Russian proverb “Doveryai no proveryai”. It means “Trust but verify”.
Loyalty
A little loyalty goes a long way. Saying things behind people’s backs is highly likely to come back and bite you. We are, however, distrustful of those who are too loyal; we can’t understand their motives, and we become unsure about what is driving their behaviour.
A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself
Josh Billings
The same is true of predictability, helpfulness, integrity, politeness and the numerous qualities that engender trust. We intrinsically know when somebody is trying too hard.
The Payback
So trust is ethereal, difficult to come by, and easy to break, but if you have it in your organisation, it will make a world of difference. Staff members share information, learn from mistakes, give credit, and fear disappears. The strangest thing about trust is that it is easy to measure despite its nature. You can spot it a mile away.
Homework
Carry out a trust audit. It doesn’t need to be elaborate. Run a workshop with your team working through these simple questions:
- Describe the most trusting working environment where you have ever worked?
- What are the barriers to achieving the same environment here?
- What steps could you take to bridge the gap?
Spend 1/2 an hour on each question, jotting down the responses you get and exploring their answers. Critique the outputs and ask yourself what actions should managers take to address them. Is the issue one of integrity, intent, skill, or results? What could you do about it?
If you want to know more about a business that uses trust to its advantage, it is worth learning a little about Chris Zane.
In next week’s lesson, we will discuss employee targets.
Thank you for reading.
Related Posts:
- Ninety-two people die for lack of trust: What happens when your staff don’t trust you.
- The ultimate business constraint: What happens when your customers don’t trust you?
- If somebody made a mistake that nearly killed you: How should you respond when things go wrong?
- Go on, trust me: It is all about aptitude and benevolence.
More Information:
- Trust building activities: A list of games and activities.
- What we don’t understand about trust: Onora O’Neill’s TED talk on the difference between trust and trustworthiness.
Further Reading:
Stephen Covey’s Son explains why trust is so vital to businesses and the economy as a whole. He then gives practical advice on what you can do to increase levels of trust, not least of all with yourself.
Post Script
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