Trust enables your team not only to perform its daily function but also to rise above conflicts and crises. In today’s fast-paced, complex, ambiguous environment of constant change, conflicts and crises abound within the organization. So in order to succeed, trust is a necessary characteristic of any organization’s culture.
Organizational performance can rise no higher than the collective performance of its people. With the arrival of the knowledge economy, organizations are transitioning on a global scale from a mechanistic environment of linear control, to a systemic environment of complexity. As such, the role of leader has never been more important than it is in today’s world, and individual leader behaviour is the single most important predictor of organizational performance.
Absence of trust almost always brings about negative consequences. As indicated in a study by Deloitte titled “Truth in the Workplaces: 2010 Ethics & Workplace Survey,” both employees and executives who participated in the survey agreed that lack of trust hurts morale. In addition, executives responded that the presence of no trust damages productivity and profitability. Simply stated, low or no trust puts the organization at a competitive and performance disadvantage.
The fundamental purposes of building and sustaining trust are to accomplish tasks and achieve goals. In this way, trust is an operational and collaborative imperative without which there will be below-average safety, quality, and client satisfaction. It is people – not processes, policies, strategies, tools or methods – that make up the collaboration, and it is trust that is critical in motivating people to do the actual work. Technical mastery, intelligence, personal and professional drive, past accomplishments, and vision are admirable and necessary leadership qualities, but they alone do not inspire long-term trust and collaboration. These qualities must be complemented by interpersonal and behavioural competencies.
A leader’s high degree of credibility is the sum of both behavioural and technical skills, and this credibility is what sustains trust. Trust, in turn, leads followers to support the concept of collaboration at first and then, ultimately, to fully participate in or pursue collaborations. In the absence of credible leaders, people will still perform their tasks and abide by organizational rules. They only do so, however, because they want to keep their jobs, and they perform at the lowest acceptable level possible. Obviously, this response is a narrow perspective that produces superficial results.
A collaboration that is built on trust has a deeper meaning and thus has long lasting power. It energizes, engages and awakens passion and commitment, even in the most complex organizations, such as the healthcare industry where many workers suffer from compassion fatigue – the stress, isolation, pain and apathy felt by caregivers, or the high tech industry where workers commonly suffer from stress-induced illnesses caused by burnout.
Today’s leaders cannot be just passive recipients of trust; they must also be proactive givers of trust. Today’s leaders must view trust as a mutual practice: They work hard to earn and keep it, and they expect and demand others to do the same. By displaying trustworthy behaviour every day, they serve as a model to their followers and other partners.
More to point, today’s executive leadership team must possess this one key ingredient for excellence – trust. If trust is not reflected by the behaviours and actions of top leadership, the negative impact of this deficiency will inevitably ripple throughout the organization and performance will suffer at all levels. When a disparity or misalignment exists between the conviction and values organizational leadership profess and the actual behaviour they exhibit, they create confusion and distrust among team members. Without trust there is no influence, and without influence there is no opportunity to reach superior performance. Trust can only exist in a positive and energized union of human energy and behaviour. Making the connection between human behaviour and human energy lies in the skill of Positive Presence.
Catherine is the President and CEO of CORPORATE HARMONY, providing virtual solutions for leadership development and organizational culture change. Her leadership and coaching experience as a Project Manager in an ever-changing, fast moving technological organization with unrelenting demands drove her to the realization that a positive mindset and strength-building behaviors are essential for today’s complex and chaotic organizational systems. CORPORATE HARMONY’s virtual platform of programs, coaching and performance measurement, is an innovative online technology of tested proprietary content. The world-class content of CORPORATE HARMONY’s Positive Presence Program develops the skill of ‘Positive Presence’ and the necessary ‘Positive Presence Behaviour Competencies’ for maintaining a positive and energized mindset and increased performance in today’s complex work environment, and leading to a culture of collaboration and connection. Catherine’s vision for Corporate Harmony is to bring the skill of “Positive Presence” to the corporate world as it becomes more complex, ambiguous and chaotic. Catherine is uniquely positioned to impact organizations’ productivity and long term success, with her powerful vision of eliminating bad stress from every workplace around the globe, bringing purpose into the people equation to promote healthy, productive and meaningful work cultures and turn the tide on the neglect of mental health on a global scale. Catherine is author of the book: “CORPORATE HARMONY – The Performance Link for Today’s Modern Organization” Catherine can be reached at: Catherine.Osborne@corporateharmony.ca or go to ‘contact us’ on our website www.corporateharmony.ca. Catherine is available for consultation, and can be reached by 519-695-3407.