Leadership and building trust

Sometime back, I was in a coaching call with a client He is a senior director with a tech company and had recently taken over a new role and a new team “I feel that I am not able to connect with my new team effectively,” he said “especially since many of my team members are still working remotely” “Tell me more” I probed him “Well, I have to constantly check on them as I am not sure what they are doing,” he said “So it appears that I am micromanaging the team, which is obviously not my intent” “How is this impacting you?” I asked “The overall performance and productivity of the team is getting impacted” he continued This might seem like a common scenario to you, right? Remote working has created its own challenges in terms of people management and every leader, every organization is trying to figure out the best way to manage teams remotely And it is easy to attribute lack of connectivity or rapport with teams to remote working as a single cause But there is a more fundamental issue here…. Lack of trust And that is more about your own leadership style than anything else Let me explain further... In my experience of coaching and consulting with senior leaders, there are 3 distinct styles of leadership when it comes to trust The 100% style You trust your people completely by default stand (100% trust) This needs a lot of courage, as the onus “to trust” is on you It obviously holds good till someone breaks your trust Once that trust is broken, the onus shifts on the team member to repair the relationship and gain the trust back The 0% style You do not trust your people by default. Your starting position is 0% trust You expect people to do things to gain your trust over time The onus to gain your trust is entirely on your team members If anything goes wrong, it is easy for you to put the blame on people “I told you so” or “I knew it” kind of attitude The X% style This is where you do not start from 0%. You also do not trust your team 100% You are somewhere in between You know them well. You like them. But you do not trust them completely Again, the onus to gain your trust is on your team members, but they are not starting from 0% They have a head start Now this is just one side of the story Trust is a 2-way street Let us look at the other side What about your team members? What is their position on trust? Do they trust you or not? Obviously, there is no direct way to know it You need to observe their behavior, their actions, and their words and derive conclusions from it You need to get feedback from them But if you simply adopt that approach, the burden is still on your team members to give you clues or feedback whether they trust you or not And it can be long drawn process before you can make any meaningful conclusion Most importantly – whether they trust you or not is something that is not under your direct control So what is a better approach? Take ownership to win their trust You can even assume their starting position is 0%. They do not trust you by default Ask yourself this question - "What can I do to gain their trust ?" And when you take this stand, you can influence them positively by your actions and behaviors as a leader It may take a lot of courage and effort to gain their trust But remember... The key is to be genuine and authentic You truly want to build deep meaningful relationships with your people You want to gain their trust You see…. Being aware of your own approach to trust as a leader is the key Being aware of your true intention as a leader is important So here is your weekly reflection : 1) What is your default position on trust? 100%, 0% or X%. Be genuine and honest, when you reflect 2) Do your team members trust you or not? How do you even know it? 3) What actions do you take or can take to gain their trust? What more can you do in this space going forward? 4) What is your true intention when it comes to managing people? I would be interested to know what came up for you as you read and reflected on this email

Till then Stay safe and stay healthy Harsh Johari