Looking for a productivity boost not just for yourself — but your team as well? Win the trust of your staff with a culture of honesty and you can improve the group's odds of success.
When Mike Peterson, Bentonville, Ark.-based founder and managing partner of Apex Consulting Partners and author of "Leading In The Age Of Digital Disruption," went into consulting, he found top teams possess three keys to success. Those are trust, transparent communication and accountability.
"They're not a requirement for high-performing teams, but they're required to give your team the best chance for success," he said. "They're so important because people don't feel engaged and aligned with a leader or a company without trust."
Tapping Into Honesty
Trust and accountability are tightly intertwined, says Peterson, a former head of human resources and information technology for several public companies. Trust is vital in being accountable. And if you don't hold your team accountable it'll erode trust.
"So it's this self-fulfilling prophecy that they're connected," he said.
Russ Laraway, Whitefish, Mont.-based coach, adviser and speaker who wrote "When They Win, You Win," looks at trust as stemming from accountability, authenticity, vulnerability and doing what you said you would do. In one word: honesty.
Stay Accountable To Enjoy Honesty
Accountability is necessary to success. For any group to perform well, a decision's outcome must match expectations, Laraway says.
"In the Marines, we had a phrase, 'It's not what you expect, it's what you inspect,'" Laraway said. "Accountability is about checking to make sure behaviors were done the way they were expected to be done."
Peterson looks at accountability differently. Some people often view accountability as punishing others when they make mistakes. "That's fear-based accountability," he said. "To be successful, it has to be accountability built on trust."
That means allowing others to own their actions, decisions and results. It's about making sure people know who's doing what, when it's needed and how to measure success. "And accountability is just as focused on positive consequences — rewards — as on negative consequences like being fired," Peterson said.
Gain Trust To Get People's Best Work
If people don't trust their leaders, they become nervous and don't know their standing.
"People are not capable of doing their best work when they feel threatened at work," Laraway said. "And they do feel threatened if they can't trust their leadership."
Gain trust by getting input from everyone on your team. But equally important: considering the input with honesty. Laraway has worked at three major tech companies, including Alphabet and Twitter. And all had all-staff meetings featuring questions from employees. The entire staff voted on which questions deserved answers at the meeting.
"There is no board of directors that can hold a senior leadership team as accountable as the employees can," Laraway said.
Teams applaud Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin for their honest and straightforward answers to tough questions. "It is incredibly powerful," Laraway said. "Can you imagine a better way for senior leadership to build trust than to stand up in front of the company and be accountable for mistakes?"
Find Honesty
Unauthentic answers backfire. And make sure you as the leader consider the suggestion even if you don't take action on it. If you do implement those ideas, let people know you've done that.
"To build trust you have to be explicit with people that you followed up on their input," Laraway said. "When you're acting on employee feedback, you must scream it from the mountaintops. It's never good enough just to do a good thing."
Be willing to have tough conversations with people and to deliver bad news, if needed, Peterson says. "I see so many leaders in very high positions that are incredibly conflict-avoidant," he said. "They avoid any kind of feedback, criticism or tough news. That is a quick way to erode trust."
Pursing honesty isn't easy, though.
"I'm consistently surprised at how hard this is for people," Peterson said. "But you have to pull up your pants and march on."
