Trust. It is something that comes up when talking about people’s character. It is something most of us want (and/or even expect) in our relationships - family, friends, colleagues. It is something that, when broken, can be difficult, if not impossible, to repair. In Effortless, McKeown describes it as “Engine oil that keeps the team working smoothly.”
Integrity is the foundation of trustworthiness. Warren Buffet believes integrity is the most important trait and is famously quoted as saying, "In looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you." Even Stephen Covey lists integrity as one of the top principles, which he describes as “Principles are lighthouses. They are natural laws that cannot be broken.”
So why is trust so important? Without it, we can’t function well as a team - whether that be as a family, as a workgroup, as business partners, or even as a sports team. For the team to run smoothly, we need to trust each other (it is as two-way street); we need to trust that the others have our backs. If we are constantly looking over our shoulders and wondering if someone is throwing us under the bus, we aren’t concentrating on what’s important, and we lose focus.
While I don’t consume a lot of news (I try to keep it to stuff that is health or business-related), I have seen several stories recently that make me scratch my head in confusion as to why these big companies feel the need to treat their employees with such distrust. One article I read the other day talked about how Amazon is “cracking down” on their employees who want to continue to work from home. The way they are approaching the situation is creating an adversarial dynamic between them and the employees, showing a complete lack of trust in the employees, which then cycles to the employees distrusting them, and round and round they go, further away from trust.
Spending the time to build trust with your team (in whatever shape that takes) is critical to healthy relationships and business success. Don’t pit each other into an “us versus them” situation - all that does is erode and eventually completely destroy any trust that was once established. Teams that trust each other are more successful because they are more productive due to better communication and collaboration - they are also happier which is always a plus!
Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below!