Even though you're the boss, the people on your team don't trust you.
They don't. Know why?
They don't trust you because they have no idea what to expect from you. While most leaders believe they're perfectly predictable, their teams beg to differ. I've done the unscientific research that demonstrates team members don't always know what to expect from the boss and predicting the boss's behavior is difficult at best.
How trusted are you?
I'm sure you think your team trusts you beyond a doubt. That may or may not be true. Let's take a little quiz to see how trustworthy and predictable you really are. Here are sixteen simple little questions. Answer each one with a "yes" or "no" -- no equivocating. If you prefer, you can take this Trusted Leader Assessment online - it only takes 3-5 minutes and you'll get more comprehensive analysis of your results in the online version.
The questions are broken into four sections. Each one examines a different aspect of your leadership style. Answer the questions quickly and go with your first gut reaction. Be honest in your answers. At the end, we'll assess results and see how much your people likely trust you.
- Does your team know your primary passion behind the work you do?
- Does your team know your ultimate personal professional goal?
- Have you ever shared your personal ethical code with your team?
- Does your team know your sources of inner strength and motivation?
- Do your team members understand your perspective on personal accountability?
- Is your team clear on what your most critical performance metrics are?
- Does your team know your view of the team's vision and mission?
- Is your team aware of how you like to generate new ideas?
- Does your team know your views on how you make decisions?
- Is your preferred leadership style clearly understood by your team?
- Do your team members feel like you genuinely treat them like individuals?
- Does your team feel like you're well-connected with the reality of their jobs?
- Does your team feel like you're fully committed to their growth and development?
- Does your team know your boundaries between work and life?
- Would your team say you do a good job of keeping things in perspective?
- Does your team know what you're passionate about outside of work?
So how trusted are you?
Trust is about predictability. The more predictable and knowable you are as a leader, the more likely your people are to trust you. They'll know how you will react in certain situations and they can tailor their behavior accordingly. For example, if they know your performance standard requires them to bring sufficient data before you'll make a decision, they're more likely to do that work ahead of the meeting than they are to come in sans data and be surprised and frustrated when you ask for data before you'll make a decision.
Not only do they need to understand how you'll lead them, they need to understand what motivates you, how you think, and what's important to you outside of work. When they have that complete picture, you become more of a known and understandable quantity to them. When they feel like they know you as a person instead of just as a boss, the relationships you have with them get stronger and they're more willing to put in the extra effort to do a great job for you.
If you're particularly deficient in any of the four aspects of leadership, invest some introspection time and energy to define your leadership philosophy in that arena. It's a big unknown for your team and to fully trust you, they need to understand you more fully as a person. Take the time to take the Trusted Leader Assessment to see where you stack up. The results can make a big difference in helping you build trust with the members of your team.
Articulating a leadership philosophy isn't some big academic exercise nor is it something you do once and toss in a file cabinet. A great leadership philosophy is the foundation of trust between you and your team members. It's a vehicle for communicating who you are and how you'll react in almost any situation. If you invest the time in writing and sharing yours, your people will appreciate it and trust you a great deal more than they do today.