www.1001TopWords.com |
Building the Trust in Your Employees - 12 Easy Tips
In Stephen Covey's great book, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", he talks about the 'emotional bank account', where you have to build a credit in your relationship with the individuals who you work with (and everyone else as well!). If what you do isn't 'trustworthy', then all you have done in your gentle listening and asking great and interested questions to build, is to 'debit' your account. And if you do more of this than the credit you build, then you will never get your folks on your side. But what is trust? You can't invest more wisely than by listening fully to what interests the person you are in conversation with. So, ask more questions about what they tell you. Easy as that - it's a simple tool, but really builds trust too. Here are a few other things which generate their trust in you:- Sounds simple, yet often it is done without thinking. On busy days what you say does get taken in, yet you forget. Don't! People hang on what you say - so it must be the truth! A biggy this. What you say holds a far greater importance to the person you say it to than maybe you, who say so much stuff all day long. If you say you will do something for someone, then do it - or don't say you will. And separate from promises. Actions. Your people look on you to facilitate their delivery of the business. You can smooth things out, make things happen, provide resources. So if you say you are going to fix things, then please do it! Hey, even more, do a little more! When you are talking with your people make sure you give them full attention and the courtesy of enough time. Put them first not second (or even third). Switch your phone or pager off. Put off other interruptions. By ensuring that you treat all of your people the same, you will build their trust hugely. It is a sense of sharing and caring that comes from everyone, even you, being equal in an emotional sense, so building a common bond. You need to be disciplined enough that you have no closer 'friends' than everyone. If you treat some people more 'equally' than others, it sure gets noticed, creates divisions and loses that pulling together which you need. Your folks get twitchy if you are erratic in your behaviour and attitudes. By modifying your behaviours to be consistent (and if you aren't have someone tell you). And in the thing about consistency and fairness and no favourites, remember you. You cannot be different. You cannot afford to behave in a way that shows favouritism to yourself. Your people who you want onside need to be nurtured and cared for. Encouraged and engaged. It needs you to be able to relieve their fear of getting things wrong. Your people can make mistakes. It's OK! Then you will get them experimenting and trying stuff - all of which will be generating great solutions. Let them! People always have things which are important to them - and it isn't always their work! So find out what it is and honour that - it builds their trust in you, because you value them. If you have issues or problems with people, be honest with them and let them know. It's about what they do and not about them as people - but be honest enough to work with them and not talk about them behind their back Your people try their best - by acknowledging them for this, they will trust you more and more. Building trust is not only the most valuable thing that you can do with your people, but it is the most important thing that you must do. © 2005 Martin Haworth is a Business and Management Coach. He works worldwide, mainly by phone, with small business owners, executives and corporate leaders. He has hundreds of hints, tips and ideas at his website, http://www.coaching-businesses-to-success.com. (Note to editors. Feel free to use this article, wherever you think it might be of value - it would be good if you could include a live link)
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Managing Meetings Plan/prepare - lack of purpose causes aimless meetings. Know why you're there - what the meeting is for. Challenge of ERP Implementation: Q and A with Rick Maurer Question: ERPs seem like a good idea, so why is return on investment so low? Communicating When A Crisis Strikes How would you handle communication if your business or practice got into a crisis situation? Avoiding The Sheep Dip It is a sad fact that many employees are still being subjected to the age old training ritual of "sheep dipping". This is a process by which employees are "refreshed", "cleansed" and "re-invigorated" by ensuring they attend set training courses or, perhaps, are placed on the ubiquitous "refresher" course. This refresher course is, of course, necessary, because most employees forget what they have learned on similar courses that they had been previously on. Do they? Toxic Bosses What's everyone's favorite topic around the water cooler? Bad bosses! You know, the ones who make life in the office unbearable? Here are some of the more common varieties you'll find. Basic Management Skills Recent studies have shown that industrial supervisors are working at less than 60 % of their potential. Basic management skills training is guaranteed to change all this and at such little cost Nine Vital Lessons For Avoiding Training Fads That Waste Time, Money and Enthusiasm Unfortunately, at least two thirds of much of the training and development effort undertaken by organisations to develop their people is wasted. How to Prepare for Your Companys Financial Future Sooner or later, most business owners need to look for outside financing. Whether it's a line of credit with a bank to handle predictable cash crunches or a significant capital investment to improve plant and equipment, virtually every business will need access to additional funds at some point in its life. Project Management - I Want It ALL The knee-jerk response to prioritizing requirements is to mark everything as a must-have . "I need everything before the product becomes generally available. I want it ALL!" Give me a break. Creativity and Innovation - Large Firms Versus Small Firms There is a pervasive assumption that small firms are more creative and innovative than larger firms. That is, they identify problems and generate ideas (creativity) and idea select, develop and commercialise (innovate) those ideas to a greater degree than larger firms. However, there is a large degree of untruth to this assumption: Communicating with Case Studies A few weeks ago, a couple of colleagues and I discussed a new business idea. But, we had trouble expressing how this new business would provide value. Small Business Outsourcing: An Introduction Outsourcing is the delegation of a business process to an external service provider. The service provider will then be responsible for the day-to-day running and maintenance of the delegated process. Four Ways To Make the Case For Outsourcing How do you convert outsourcing leads into clients? You may need to make the case for outsourcing. Demise of the Lone Ranger Manager: A Lesson in Management Communication Style When executives see themselves as solely responsible for the overall success of their enterprise, subordinates can hardly be blamed for acting according to predictions. Quality Staffing: Stop Placing the Wrong People in the Wrong Jobs You can possibly teach a turkey to climb a tree ? but it is a lot easier to hire a squirrel. Quality staffing means selecting the right people with the right skills for the right jobs and at the right time. A good hire can take the weight of the world off your shoulders. A poor one can eat up your time and energy and weaken an entire team. So, why do so many leaders place so many people in so many wrong places? Here are five key reasons. Inventory Management 101 Inventory management may seem complicated to some, but if one truly thinks about what the words "inventory management" mean, it is a simple concept. Inventory is basically a list of goods and materials that are held by a business and are available in stock. Inventory management is the process of keeping track of inventory, and having the delicate balance of supply and demand firmly mastered. When having inventory, a company does not ever want to have too much of a product, nor does it want to have not enough of that product to meet demand. Inventory management helps to ensure that a proper inventory is maintained at all times. Six Sigma Training 101 ? Better Management Basics What is Six Sigma? 13 Comments on Bad Meetings Bad meetings are a cultural malady that senior executives pass on to new employees. Is ISO 9001 2000 Right For My Business? Firstly you should decide your own reasoning behind considering ISO 9001 2000 registration for your business. Creativity and Innovation Management in Conservative, Staid Organisations Conservative and staid organisations generally have a harder time implementing creativity and innovation into their day-to-day work processes and people. Leaders may want to capture the benefits of creativity and innovation, yet there may be relevant and almost contradictory issues that they have to deal with, including: |
© Athifea Distribution LLC - 2013 |