10 Secrets of Trusted Leadership
One of the essential components to creating a positive and productive workplace is a strong sense of trust in you as a leader. Without trust as a core component in the workplace, team relationships suffer, productivity is compromised and fair and open communication necessary for strategic planning can break down.
Here are 10 ways to help you build a strong sense of trust in your leadership.
Keep confidential information to yourself!
If information is confidential then be consistent and reliable in ensuring that it is. Breaking confidences is something that is very hard to repair once done.
Own your mistakes
By doing so, you’re demonstrating that you’re not perfect (no one is by the way). You’re also encouraging an environment of risk taking. By risk taking I don’t mean climbing a high ladder! An environment of risk taking in that it’s good to ‘have a go’, to try new methods without fear of failure. A risk taking environment encourages your employees to think outside the box, to be creative in solving problems. I believe that an environment of risk taking is essential to creating an effective and successful business.
Be consistent in your message.
Once your Strategic plan is complete, ensure you consistently demonstrate working towards the goals and values inherent. Ensure you give the same message to all groups.
Demonstrate Strong Values and Integrity
It’s important that you’re consistently true to yourself, your beliefs and values.
Remain one step removed from the gossip fountain!
Leadership is not about gossip – beware of getting involved in gossip. It is not a good message that you’re sending to your team.
Be inclusive.
Include employees in decision making – shared ownership of decisions will lead to greater commitment from your employees.
Acknowledge other’s successes and contributions.
I don’t encourage a huge public display of successes as this method builds competition and probably dread in employees who would not welcome this approach. A simple thank you to an employee for what they’ve done either personally one to one, or at a team meeting speaks loudly about you valuing their contribution.
Encourage leadership in others.
Distributed leadership builds a huge amount of trust reciprocated between employees and with you as their leader. You demonstrate a faith in their capabilities and ability to lead. This also encourages shared ownership in the outcomes.
Get to know your employees.
Be consistent and professional in relationships and not favouring one group over the other. Show that you care by remembering important information shared by employees.
Give and receive feedback.
If processes require you to give feedback on performance then you must also request honest feedback from your employees. As I said previously in this post no one is perfect, by requesting feedback from your employees you’re demonstrating that you also want to improve your performance. This will be respected if given an honest and open way.
To build an environment of trust you need to consistently ‘walk the talk’ of a fair, open and honest leader.
Everything you do and say is role modelling what you expect from others.
Do you agree with my list? Have I left anything out? Would love your feedback.
