FountainBlue's April 9 When She Speaks women in leadership series program, on the topic of 'Building a Culture of Trust'. We were fortunate to have a seasoned and varied range of panelists to speak on the very timely question of building a culture of trust.Building trust has been especially important as leaders at all levels are dealing with many uncertainties and challenges with the pandemic and its aftermath. Below is a summary of our learnings from the panel discussion.
Trust is essential for leadership and management. It is something that's slow-to-earn, and quick-to-lose, which makes the stakes high. A team, a company, an individual can't thrive and succeed unless he/she/they/we have the trust of the many others in their circle. Below are best practices for building trust.
Be Worthy of the Trust
Be credible. Work hard. Be clear on what's required and consistently exceed expectations.
Be authentic, sincere, honest and true. Your character will help you build trust.
Own up to your mistakes, and be willing to humbly learn from them.
Be vulnerable about what you can and can't do, and persistent about learning what you need to do to perform well.
Be courageous and bold, especially when you are uncomfortably doing what you know to be right by others.
Do the right thing. Do right by others. Do this consistently. Especially when it's hard.
Share a vision for what's next, especially when so much is uncertain.
Consistently walk the talk and talk the walk, building a brand worthy of the trust of others.
Be Other-Focused
Listen well and deeply to what the other is saying so that you can understand both the needs and the motivation.
Relationships matter. Be sincere, transparent and direct with your communications and act like those relationships matter.
Be empathetic and supportive of others. Manage and communicate with grace. We are all working and living in strange, uncertain and at times difficult circumstances.
Be Collaborative
Identify and work toward that common ground, in concert with an ecosystem of others.
Set high expectations for yourself and others, and communicate how each stakeholder benefits from collaboratively working toward a common goal.
Value those who think and speak and act differently, and invite them to collaborate.
Keeping Learning and Excelling
Be self-aware enough to know yourself and your own strengths and limitations. Keep reaching for stars from there.
Never settle - keep reaching and learning and making things better for yourself, your team, your customer, your partners.
Assertively make a stand for divergent viewpoints and input. Graciously invite others to do the same.
Embrace the opportunities to feel uncomfortable.
The measure of a (wo)man is not just how they behave when they succeed but also how they learn and grow when they don't.
Be Strategic
Ask the 'why' before the 'what'. Make sure that the 'what' always aligns with the why.
Don't let the 'how' interfere with the 'what'.
The bottom line throughout the conversation is to be credible - to provide a constancy amongst the change, the all-in support of others which helps all to reach confidently for what's next.