I was talking to an executive the other day who was telling me that she was concerned that her staff were taking advantage of working from home and that they were not always available as she would expect them to be. Seems that when she texted or emailed them for information on a project, it took them several hours to get back to her. In the “old days”, she told me, she would “just walk on down to their office and quiz them immediately,” but now she was questioning whether she could trust them to get things done.
I asked her how they were performing, and she said their performance was good but she didn’t see them putting in the little bit of extra that she received from them when everyone was working in one location. Was this a Pandemic distancing issue? Or a leadership issue? Or a trust issue?
One of the early pieces of Pandemic research that has come out about remote working is that employee effectiveness is very much contingent on their relationship with their manager, Employees and managers who have a high level of trust report that they are twice as likely to be with the company 1 year from today. Folks with low levels of trust are not only planning to leave but may have already disengaged from the company.
If you as a manager are questioning whether you trust your employees, try this exercise:
- Start 2 piles on your desk, labeled “Trust” and “Don’t Trust”.
- Write down the names of your team members and assign them to 1 pile or the other.
- On the back of each sheet of paper with your team member’s name on it, answer the following question”
- Why do I trust this person? Or Why don’t I trust this person?
- As you review your findings, pay particular attention to the people who you trust and ask why. While it certainly relates to them, it also relates to you so consider what actions you are taking that build trust for you and them.
- Once you get a read on the conditions that have built or hurt trust, build a little plan to improve (for low trust people) or strengthen (for high trust people) and put the topic of trust on your team agenda, perhaps with an article ) (this one is from Gallup) that can be used for discussion.
Trust is a critical factor for workplace success and is a topic worth exploring further
Events and Happenings
Resilient Mindfulness: Wednesday, September 2, 2020 at 7 PM.
Managing Physical Discomfort
We’ll diverge from our usually workplace focus to explore how we can better manage physical discomforts such as aches and pains. People are telling me that these programs are helping them focus and relate to using these ideas for both work and personal improvement and this session will give you some easy skills for relaxing and being with your physical discomforts in ease. You can sign up here
© Richard Citrin 2020
