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Leadership is a matter of trust
‘TRUST GIVES YOU THE PERMISSION TO GIVE PEOPLE DIRECTION, GET EVERYONE ALIGNED, AND GIVE THEM THE ENERGY TO GET THE JOB DONE.’ THESE WORDS BY FORMER CAMPBELL SOUP COMPANY CEO DOUGLAS CONANT ENCAPSULATES A CORNERSTONE OF SUCCESSFUL LEADERSHIP.
By Thato Belang
PRIOR TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, CEOs and other
business leaders might have viewed trust as one of the shafts that drive the flywheel of performance. But the pandemic has significantly shifted our landscape, including how leaders engage with now remote teams, and has made trust a top-line agenda item.
This transition did not come without its challenges. The absence of face-to- face engagements and interaction requires a lot of trust by both employers and employees. Leaders have to trust their teams to continue providing customers
with the best service and products, and with the same professionalism as they did when working in the office. Similarly, teams need to be able to trust their leaders to be transparent and to set clear and fair expectations. Leaders also have to be realistic about
the obstacles their teams are navigating. They need to be more empathetic.
TRUST IS A
TWO-WAY STREET
As a coach, I believe in creating an environment that is enabling, empowering and inspiring, and that
trust is needed if you are to create such an environment. In order to achieve this
trust, research tells us that team members have to
feel psychologically safe.
Teams feel psychologically safe when they share a belief and trust that there
will not be any form of threat if they ask for help, seek
and provide feedback, are vulnerable or voice their dissenting views. This is particularly important now as we are all navigating uncharted territory. Trust, as Douglas Conant, ex- Campbell Soup Company CEO, says, enables people to execute with excellence and produce extraordinary results. It ultimately
helps to build high-performing
teams that are agile, collaborative, innovative and highly engaged.
Building this level of trust is an ongoing process that requires authenticity and empathy. It requires leaders to be open and transparent as part of actively nurturing trust. Establishing authentic relationships with co-workers creates an environment where everyone is inspired to do their best, because they know that they can rely and count on you as their leader.
I have seen people make the mistake of thinking that being transactional and results- focused will get teams to perform. Sadly, this is not
the case. On the contrary,
the opposite may happen.
18 | ISSUE 1 2021