Build Trust - Inside your team
One hundred years ago, or even fifty, most work was undertaken in factories where managers were tasked with ensuring that their subordinates did not deviate from the tried-and-true process of the factory. Change in such environments could result in serious injury or even death. So managers focused on making their employees conform to the standard set from on high, and went about ensuring everyone did the same things over and over again, in a repeatable format, day after day. For most of the people we encounter in our everyday lives this is no longer the case. We, as a society, have far more knowledge workers now than we do manufacturing workers. Does anyone believe that the skill sets of these workers are the same? Then why do we try and manage the same way?
Your team is no longer looking to you to prescribe to them how to do their work; they are looking for you to inspire them to invest their time, talents and treasures into a shared cause, a common goal. As such, you need to inspire your colleagues. But have you ever been inspired by someone you do not trust? How can they be expected to give their all to a cause if they do not trust who is leading it?
Maslow proposes in his book, Motivation and Personality, that humans have a hierarchy of needs
Self-actualization
Esteem
Love and belonging
Safety needs
Physiological needs
which build as a pyramid with the pinnacle being self-actualization. Think about the work your grandparents or parents did. How many of them would have been concerned with self-actualization over the needs of putting food on the table for their families? Historically, employees followed orders or instructions; now with the knowledge worker, you need to give them a reason to perform. You need to build trust inside your team so it can radiate out and become infectious to your customers.
In Daniel Pink’s book, Drive, he points out that “autonomy, mastery and purpose” are what truly drives knowledge workers. How are you going to provide your team autonomy if trust cannot be established? My current boss has a wonderful habit of letting people do what they want or giving them what they want. He has come to realize that if he trusts people and gives them what they are asking for, if their request is a foolish one, they will self-correct. Or alternatively, he will be close enough by to bail them out of any serious trouble. This autonomy helps foster trust in our team. He does not mandate how to get the job done, just simply what needs to be done, and trust that his team will get there.
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