Trust in difference
Welcome to Love Mondays, a weekly newsletter designed as a 3-minute hit to fire up the other 10,077 minutes of your week.
Trust in difference. Not indifference.
Trust is the hidden currency on which our world exists. Very little happens without it. But how do we work out who to trust? People we share a common viewpoint, background or joke with? Are our default trust settings wired to bias?
Who, in your working environment, do you trust? And who trusts you?
Write this down.
Consider: do we trust people who are vastly different from us?
Practice: listening for authenticity, empathy and logic in people ‘not like us’
Decide to: have a conversation with your team about what it takes to build trust throughout the rest of the organisation
The trust triangle
Trust is also one of the most essential forms of capital a leader has. Building trust, however, often requires thinking about leadership from a new perspective. Trust is the foundation for all relationships, business or otherwise. To build close bonds in an organisation, people must see each other and the organisation as trustworthy. Trust is a key ingredient if you want to inspire employees and instil a sense of connection.
Operate with empathy: An essential aspect of building trust with employees is caring about their wellbeing, career goals, thoughts and ideas, and obstacles—display care and consider employees’ needs when making business decisions.
Anchor in logic: Help employees to make sense of internal processes and decisions by providing clear rationales and being open to feedback and ideas for innovation.
Be authentic: Create space for authenticity in the workplace and have the courage to display vulnerability, especially if you are a leader.
Trust has three drivers: authenticity, logic, and empathy. When trust is lost, it can almost always be traced back to a breakdown in one of them. To build trust as a leader, you first need to figure out which driver you “wobble” on.
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