Module nine, earning the trust of your team. Avoiding micromanagement. delegating tasks properly and celebrating successes are all ways to increase your high regard and trust for your team. But trust is a two way street and effective leader is one who the followers will trust implicitly. Trust like respect does not come automatically. Some people may be naturally inclined to trust people.
But the degree of trust you need to lead effectively must be earned. Honesty. The most important way to earn trust is to consistently Be honest. This can even be helpful when admitting you were wrong or that you don't know the answer. employees will respect someone who can emit vulnerability more than someone who tries to hide behind a venue of perfection. Lying to your employees, buttering them up with fake sentiment, or taking credit for their successes are quick ways to make them just trust you.
Once employees trust you, your ability to lead them effectively becomes nearly impossible. However, honesty should never be used as a weapon. You may occasionally have to tell an employee how it is. But this is exactly where considerations of tone and intent become vitally important. Reliability in addition to being honest and effective leader will earn trust by being reliable in everything she or he does. Conversely, if you prove unreliable, employees will not trust you.
This makes it vital to follow through on everything you say. If you indicate that there is a boundary that employees should not cross, you must address it when that boundary is crossed. Even if is with a mild response such as don't do that again. If you say you will give an employee certain requested time off, then you must accomplish this. If you tell an employee you will follow up then this is vital to being able to follow up. Being reliable also means being consistent, ignoring one employee's misdeeds or success as bad as ignoring every employee successes or misdeeds in some ways.
Even worse, because it can communicate a sense of favoritism, the level of pressure and the amount of work you have before you may make it impossible to meet every one of your commitments. However, you can lessen this reality through adopting the following suggestions. Keep a well organized planner, either a calendar or some sort of organizing system where you can write down your commitments, making point to acknowledge your receipt of employees requests in writing. But also remind employees that you must have requests in writing as well. Don't over promise or under deliver. If you aren't sure, if you can award time off, don't tell the employees that you can.
One of the most important things that you can tell an employee and yet one of the most difficult is that you don't know or you're not sure. While you may fear that this will undermine your employees confidence in you. You can counter this with a statement that you will find out. Make sure that you follow up and however you do it. Do make that promise that you will follow up. If you find that you are unable to meet a previous obligation you made, make sure that you inform the other person as soon as possible.
Sometimes an emergency can come up or the situation can change. You don't need to offer a full explanation. Most of the time although in some cases it may be necessary and appreciate it, but you do need to let the other person know as soon as you know, if you have a meeting with an employee scheduled try to point out that this meeting needs to be rescheduled. availability. making yourself available to your employees is another vital aspect of building trust. This can be tricky, however, and you have to use good judgment in determining how available you need to make yourself in order to avoid micromanaging.
Nevertheless, you should always allow some time where employees can approach you. If an employee feels you're unapproachable or feels intimidated by you, it can create a situation where you are the last person about something important going on. While you want to encourage employees to not over rely upon you, you also want employees to feel they can come to you when they need to. striking the correct balance can take time and can vary from employee to employ. Some employees may develop better confidence in themselves by being left to their own devices. Others particularly new employees might need your presence a bit more.
But it's best to think of yourself in this situation as being like training wheels on a bicycle. At some point the training wheels need to come off and even then, however, your employees will trust you more, knowing that you will figuratively catch them if they fail by being supportive and constructive. openness. It may seem as if openness is the same thing as honesty, but they There's a bit more to it being open as to folded characteristic. On the one hand, you want to be upfront about your vision for your team, your plan for their success, and even when appropriate, what changes may be in store. Sometimes you may be in a position of knowing something is going to happen, and the circumstances won't allow you to inform your employees.
However, if employees sense that something is about to happen, this can produce anxiety. Since changes in work can affect a person's livelihood, this anxiety cannot be overlooked or dismiss. Try to engage in empathy about the effect keeping information from your employees. This can get tricky when trying to strike a balance between the needs of your employees and your bosses. But if you're operating from your own personal mission statement, and using your own core values themselves, making tough decisions can actually be emotionally rewarding. In that you get an opportunity to make a decision that you can be proud of.
The other aspect of openness is being open to employees feedback and criticism. They may not always be correct in their criticism or concerns, but respecting your employees means giving them a fair hearing. When someone comes to you with the problem with what you're doing, or how you are doing things, listen carefully. If you feel yourself getting angry, or defensive, it's possible that the employee has struck a nerve. You may not want to be in a place where you can immediately acknowledge the employees criticism. And if that's the case, schedule a follow up that will allow you time to assess your employees concern and what you can do about it.
Recent studies have found that people appreciate vulnerability and others far more than the appearance of perfection and invincibility. So don't be afraid to admit when you are wrong or mistaken. This can actually make you more respected and an effective leader than if you demand respect by never apologizing or acknowledging your mistakes.