Building trust is vital.
As a leader it is an essential part of your mission to build exceptional trust within your community or company.
To do this you need to establish a culture of truth (in right timing).
Without this, the door is wide open for rumor and suspicion.
And this breaks relationships, takes your progress off course, and shatters teams…making your leadership a constant uphill battle.
And trust is constantly eroded.
People know…
This does not mean blurting out every little detail of everything all the time.
It does not mean being brutal or knife sharp in your delivery.
Of course, you can choose what you share, who you share with, and how you share information, but lies, half truths, covering things up or sugar coating them, that erodes trust very quickly.
And yet, I have seen it many times…
Leaders fearful about what their followers or employees will think if they admit a mistake, if they appear fallible, if they share issues or problems that the organization is dealing with, or if they share a personal issue impacting their performance.
Of course I am not talking about inappropriate truth telling that will damage the company, sharing for the intent of seeking attention, or ill timed or difficult personal revelations.
I am talking about well considered and conscious sharing of pertinent information with your people.
Truth radar
If you try and cover up or sugar coat the truth, or underneath you are holding back because of what people might think of you, then you are breeding a culture of mistrust.
People have an inbuilt radar for truth and untruth.
Some are more in tune with it than others.
But there will always be some part of every unconscious brain that will pick up when truth is twisted, when someone is being devious, or simply outright lies.
They may know without be able to exactly put their finger on what is making them feel uneasy.
But they will feel vaguely suspicious, wary and possibly worried.
These concerns erode trust, and also use up energy that could be directed into your success trajectory instead.
This is costly across the board.
Julie’s experience
Julie is the CEO of a flourishing company, but a few years back they went through a rough patch. Sales were down and if things did not improve they were going to have to lay off staff.
Julie was very worried about how staff would react if they knew. It was imperative, if the company were to survive, that for the moment they kept their trained staff and kept morale high. It was a very stressful time and Julie was overwhelmed.
The stance Julie decided to take with staff was that everything was fine.
When she spoke with them she tried to be positive and never mentioned the company issues.
She knew she was hiding the truth. And eventually, so did they.
The staff started to pick up the tension, how tired she looked, and the extra meetings she was having.
They knew something was wrong. They began to get restless. Gossip started to fly around the workplace. People were worried. And productivity dropped. Something the company really could not afford.
Julie sensed a restlessness in the staff and felt the way they looked at her had somehow changed. They became distrustful of what she was telling them and of the care and consideration she had for them.
The company was not doing any better. Julie did not know what to do?
Eventually, she called a staff meeting and carefully shared what was happening in the company. To her surprise there was a communal sigh of relief. Why? Because now they knew what was happening…tensions and suspicions fell away. Now there was something concrete to work with. Ideas began to flow. They wanted to save the company.
To Julie this was a miracle.
And the company. They hung on. And today they are doing exceptionally well.
Michael’s experience
Michael had built a wonderful dynamic community that was feeding his successful business.
He was a hands on kind of leader, always present and supportive. This was his calling. And everything was going very well.
But when a family situation demanded his time, he handed over the online community to an administrator and decided not to tell the members. He was afraid that they might judge his choice of family over his people, that they might leave the group if they thought he was unavailable, or that it might damage his reputation as someone who “has it all.”
What he did not bank on was the people in the group sensing something was amiss, gossiping on other platforms, or being suspicious that something was happening behind the scenes. People started to leave the group. He tried to reassure people that nothing had changed. He was afraid of being found out. He was not lying exactly, but he was not telling the truth either. He knew what the problem was, but was too worried to share.
Michael had failed to understand that people sense more than you know. The different tone, approach and level of care provided by someone else was detected. Michael’s energy was missing and it was obvious to many of his followers. Some of them even contacted him to see if he was okay.
After a lot of soul searching, he decided to tell the truth. Apologized for not trusting his followers enough to share what was happening (at an appropriate level and maintaining family privacy), and that he needed to back away for a time, leaving them in the capable hands of a wonderful carefully selected human, who he then introduced.
The result; people stopped leaving. Some returned. A few remained unhappy, but trust was restored. The community survived.
The risk of editing the truth
When you edit the truth for fear of causing discomfort you are risking a great deal more than you might realize.
You risk more than just eroding trust.
You risk losing the respect of your team.
You risk losing an opportunity to be preemptive; taking action before a problem becomes a crisis.
You risk your own well-being and that of the company.
And you are failing to see the opportunity that speaking the truth will provide.
Good leaders
Good leaders accept that truth is often hard, uncomfortable and challenging.
But they also recognize that the appropriate sharing of truth opens up opportunities–
- For a new exchange of ideas.
- For problem solving.
- For new levels of communication.
- For early intervention.
- For team cohesiveness.
- For discussion
- For reassessment
- For change.
And perhaps most of all…
It creates a culture of trust and respect, a culture that has a strong and steady foundation on which to build.
