In this 10th huddle, I want to crack open the concept of TRUST, i.e. being viewed as trust-worthy as a Leader. If you read my past Huddles, you will note that the word “trust” is not included. The reason is that it is an incredibly nuanced and complex character trait that requires a multi-level approach to dissecting it to determine if we, as a Leader, are “trusted” by our team members. Even in Huddle #9 where we talked about building teams that collaborate well…underlying that entire concept of teamwork is “trust” – rather than offering glib ideas on trust, I tried to peel it back to offer more discrete actions and behaviors that are required for a team to excel.
For this huddle, I will focus on the Leader Character trait of integrity as it is a core requirement to building trust. Here’s the definition from Ivey Business School at Western University:
- Integrity – authentic, candid, transparent, principled, consistent – Holds oneself to a high moral standard and behaves consistently with ethical standards, even in difficult situations. Is seen by others as behaving in a way that is consistent with their personal values and beliefs. Behaves consistently with organizational policies and practices.
I believe that Martin Zwilling offers some great strategies for building trust in his Inc. Magazine article, “10 Strategies to Acquire the Trust You Need to Build a New Venture.” Martin’s point is that when we are asking people to step into the unknown, or to follow us as a Leader, trust is the most valuable asset that you can have. While his counsel may have been directed at entrepreneurs and start-up company dynamics, I believe the following strategies apply to all of us who strive to be successful Leaders and build successful workplace cultures:
- Take full responsibility for key business milestones – in business, there are few things that are totally in your control. Your strategy must be to accept responsibility, communicate continuously, and work effectively on back-up plans to counter the negative headwinds that come from other people, other competitors, or the economy. Do not blame others nor the non-controllable market factors.
- Quantify commitments as results versus efforts – promises to work hard or to do your best are not conducive to building trust. These are perceived as “hedging” and avoiding accountability. Spoken promises are much less credible than written ones. It is important to listen to feedback rather than trust your own perspective “in a vacuum”.
- Report progress and proactively explain delays or shortcomings – Nothing kills credibility and trust like having to be hounded for the status or delivery of a commitment. Every commitment that is delivered builds your trust reserve. For deliverables or projects that require special effort or elongated timelines, be sure to offer alternatives and recovery plans before these projects are perceived as a crisis.
- Never be accused of failure to communicate – Late communication or lack of communication leads people to believe that you are hiding something or hoping to avoid the stigma of false promises. Try to ensure that there are no surprises for the people who are depending on your Leadership. Acknowledge any failures quickly rather than ignoring or denying them.
Being candid is another layer to having integrity, per the definition that I started with in this Huddle. This immediately connects my thinking about integrity as a Leadership Character Trait to Kim Scott’s, The One Skill Leaders Need Today (from Radical Candor). Kim’s point is that effective leadership transpires when “radical candor” is in place:
- caring personally and challenging directly,
- soliciting criticism to improve your leadership, and
- providing guidance to help others grow.
Ultimately, having “radically candid” workplace relationships (i.e. Leaders with integrity and trust who demonstrate that they care about company results AND the people on the team) enables you to:
- create a culture of compassionate candor,
- build a cohesive team, and
- achieve results collaboratively.
To close out on the topic of trust and integrity, I will build off the above two experts’ counsel. Here are actions to take to build your integrity and your own trust reserves:
1. Proactively market, cultivate, and defend your trust image – trust is a formidable piece of your personal brand. It must be “marketed and protected” much like your business brand. Leverage your advocates and get their testimonials on why they trust you, be prepared to defend a potential negative trust incident, and never assume that because there are no visible negatives that your trust is not being questioned.
2. Be aware of the 4 quadrants to “Radical Candor” and move your behaviors to the compassionate candor quadrant – on Kim Scott’s framework that has “Caring Personally” on one axis and “Challenging Directly” on the other axis, there are 4 potential quadrants: ruinous empathy (being too nice, a pushover), manipulative insincerity (being fake because you just don’t care enough about the person to provide concrete positive or negative feedback to help them grow), obnoxious aggression (belittling your team or publicly humiliating them), and finally, radical candor. Radical candor is where you strike the right balance between caring personally and challenging directly in order to move the person, team, and company forward. You must pro-actively and judiciously balance these elements to be trusted and to be perceived as having integrity.
About Hutton’s Huddle – Thoughts on Leadership:
Based on inquiries and requests from my past, present, and future colleagues and business associates, I am providing my take on successful Leadership strategies and tactics to the LinkedIn community. The goal is to spark meaningful discussion and, in tandem, both share and learn from this community. This series will include written articles, videos, and other media to illustrate Leadership concepts, both the theory and the practical application. Specific nod to Ivey Business School at Western University for the Leader Character Framework.