The First Rule of Your Organization Needs to Be Trust

Relationships, whether personal or professional, are built on trust. This is true in business for employee relationships as well as customer relationships. Employees need to trust each other and their superiors, and consumers need to trust the brands in which they invest. The rule of trust builds a foundation for a successful business, and you can build trust through transparency, respect, and care. 

Trust Builds a Successful Foundation

If you’ve ever worked in a place with a lack of trust, you know how detrimental it can be for the workplace. It causes a lot of anxiety, worry, and overall negativity for employees. Customers can also sense this and won’t be willing to support the organization. A lack of trust might present itself in the form of constant questioning, doubting reliability, and even unproductive work habits. All of these contribute to a negative work environment, which in turn will cause the organization to be unsuccessful. Although it takes time to build trust, you can start right away with transparency. 

Transparency

Sharing important information with both employees and customers creates transparency. This may seem unnerving, but it fosters accountability. The more honest you are with employees, the less they will have to question or even draw their own conclusions about what is happening in the company. With an increase in communication through transparency, you will actually save the company money. A study completed by SHRM found that the average cost of poor communication in companies is over $62 million a year. This cost can simply be avoided through transparency. While increasing communication, you will also build respectful relationships in your organization. 

Respect

Building respectful relationships with your employees goes beyond casual conversations day-to-day. Respecting your employees means you respect their feedback, time, and abilities. If an employee takes time to give you feedback, or responds to your request for feedback honestly, take it seriously. Let them know they are heard, and this will make them feel valued. Superiors who seem too busy to meet with their employees will not be trusted, because it leaves employees feeling undervalued. You can respect their time by showing up on time and spending the appropriate amount of time with them. Lastly, respect the abilities your employees have. If you don’t trust them to complete tasks you hired them to complete, they will not trust your abilities to delegate. Being concerned about an employee’s abilities might be valid, but you could take the time to teach them what they need to know in order to feel confident in their abilities. Employees who feel listened to and respected will understand that you care for them. 

Care

People always want to know they are cared for, and this can be shown through praise and building company morale. When you choose to praise employees, make sure it is specific and honest praise. Instead of saying, “good job,” you could say, “I can tell you worked hard on this project, and I appreciate your creativity with X.” The employee will feel valued, and trust you for paying attention to their work. You can also show employees you care through building company morale. You might choose to do this through team building exercises or celebrations. Employees will appreciate the time you are taking to make the workplace positive, which will build positive relationships, and in turn, trust. 

Trust needs to be the first rule of your organization because people, both employees and customers, appreciate trust. This includes being transparent with and respecting employees, as well as showing them you care. Commit to taking a step tomorrow towards building trust in your company.