Do Your Employees Trust You?

Confidence in a leader’s intentions and abilities is crucial to accomplishing anything at work. Another words for this is “trust”. Think about a time when change was underway in your workplace. If we trust those leading the change, it goes more smoothly - people are less anxious and more willing to try new things even though the path may not be entirely without some bumps and turns. When people do not trust leaders, criticism, negativity and gossip rule.

As an author of human resource books, discovering the factors that create trust at work has always interested me. Consultant Cynthia Olmstead recently identified four attributes of trust (ABCD):

• Able - competent in important tasks, solves problems, gets results, helps others accomplish goals
• Believable - acts with integrity, honest, sincere, respectful, admits mistakes, keeps confidences
• Connected - cares about others, asks for input, shows empathy, listens, recognizes effort
• Dependable - is reliable, organized, follows through, responsive to requests, – walks his/her talk).

As we all know, trust is earned. Olmstead has designed a tool for self-evaluation that may also be used by others in your team to evaluate their level of trust for you. Check out the tool at: How Trustworthy Are You?

Read the entire Fast Company article on my Facebook Page Silver Creek Press on Facebook.

Paula J. MacLean is a best-selling author of 5 books on human resources. Visit her website at www.silvercreekpress.ca and visit Silver Creek Press on Facebook for great daily posts for managers, supervisors, executive directors and volunteer board members.