Trust at workplace – from words to actions

Trust is one of the most important elements in building relationships both at work and in private life. It is one of the essential parts in managing people and building high-performance teams and organizations.

Trust is built on actions not on words. Many leaders see trust as one of the core values of the organization that need to be communicated to employees and to the public. However, communicating alone is not sufficient to change how people behave and what they believe. Trust should be seen as an operational necessity. Without it the members of the team will not feel safe enough to open up, to admit when they have made a mistake, to take risks and to collaborate with each other. Building and maintaining a work environment where trust is not just a declared value, is one of the keys to have a functional and productive team.

When looking at the organization form hierarchical point of view, the top management should be the source of inspiration for all employees when it comes to organizational values. Then, through departmental and team managers the values should be transmitted and adopted from all employees. How can managers build and maintain trust in their team? What are the behaviors and actions that help can built at the workplace?

Leading by example

Leaders need to be a living example of the values of the organization and show people that they trust others. Team members are always watching and learning from their managers. Every employee wants to trust and believe in their managers. They want see that their managers are really looking out for their best interests and that they can rely on them when it comes to work related situations. 

Consistency between words and actions

Doing what we say we will do is one of the basic conditions when it comes to gain other’s trust. People need to know that they can rely on us and that things agreed it will also be done. Without this the interactions will be superficial and unproductive. There are of course situations when because of different factors we will not be able to deliver what we initially said. When this happens it is essential to be open and communicate the obstacles as soon as possible, ask for help if necessary and/or communicate what we intend to do.

Ownership of mistakes

Working together often brings mistakes. Blaming others it might seem the easiest way, however when everyone starts pointing fingers, an unpleasant atmosphere will be developed. What can be done instead is to encourage the team to think about the mistake in a constructive way: find the best solution, think about ways to avoid that in the future and learn from the mistakes.

Trust is the foundation of all solid and healthy relationships and while it can take a long time to build, at the same time can be destroyed by a single action or misconception.

Can trust be rebuilt after it has been betrayed? What does it take for that to happen? People and situations are so different and is almost impossible to generalize and give a clear answer. What it can be done is trying to build and maintain trust and when we fail in doing that, to do our best in rebuilding trust. Only this way we will find the answer to the two questions from above.