Leadership Why Trust Matters
Trust is the basic building block of any organisation. Trust if lost is very hard to find back and businesses and other federal structures fall apart due lack of connection. Hence the managers and organisation leaders must inbuilt trust in their employees and safeguard the fundamental values of the organisation. If start counting there are much importance of Trust for leadership, few major are discussed.
First is coordination. Any organisation is like a ship sailing in a vast sea, sailing through calm waters and sometimes through rough times. The CEO of the company is like the captain of the ship. If all the parts of this ship are intact, and other crew members perform their job well, the probability of sinking the ship is minimal. Similarly for an organisation to function smoothly, its employees must trust the management. It can happen when top leadership delivers to its employees what is promised. Be it a yearly bonus to its employees, promotions and other incentives. If such thing happens, it boosts the morale of the employees, and they work with zeal and enthusiasm towards the company goals. The job satisfaction will be high and so will be attrition rate will be low.
Trust enables good decision making. Management can take organisation level decisions smoothly if its employees trust them. With higher levels, employees pose the least resistance to changes. Many times it is seen that employees resist management decisions due to lack of trust and so their quality of service to customers drop sharply. In distrust of organisational changes of downsizing or may be forced relocation, the morale of the employee breaks. It affects the bottom line of the company. But such management problem can be overcome by establishing trust between managers and employees.
Trust encourages innovation. With high job satisfaction and motivation, employees are eager to walk the extra mile for their bosses. Innovation is the lifeline for survival of any industry in today's dynamic market. Employees try to innovate and automate processes which make the company work faster, easier and deliverables accurate. This is, in turn, adds green dollars to company's profit. Employees work hard and cut overhead expenses by automation of the production lines without worrying about the security of their jobs. It becomes a cycle of progress for the organisation. Employees innovate and excel which in turn brings profit to the organisation. Companies grow and flourish and in turn employees to grow with time.
Trust encourages healthy work environments. It reduces hostility and brings a sense of positivity and fraternal feeling among the employees. They are less stressed at work and live a healthy work-life balance. Trust increase loyalty and they are willing to stay in a company. Trust decreases isolating behaviour among employees and all work as a team to achieve the common goal. Employees help each other and also the management of various decision making and objective planning. The company becomes an emblem of a family who takes cares of each other in every problem and hardships.
Trust is the key to successful business. If the customer sees happy employees and positive feedbacks they are a willingness to engage with the company increases many folds. Customers are also confident that they are in safe hands. Their service is guaranteed, and deliverables perfect to their satisfaction. The trust factor is contagious. It spreads the word of mouth. If one person trusts, another person and the third person trusts the second person. Then the first and the third person automatically trust each other. Hence this propagates in geometric progression.
Let us take for example Netflix. It started its online business of rental DVDs on the basis of trust to its customers hoping that his clients return the DVDs after use within the given time. And so its business flourished, and its customer base grew many folds. In the process, it also faced certain distrust customers who violated their rules, but Netflix removed those customers as cost of doing business. But at the end of the day showing trust to his clients had bear fruits as profit to Netflix business.
There are many such stories of a start-up who flourished to the heights of successful business on the very foundations of building trusts. Such companies started with a handful of trusted employees and grew up to become world market giants. Count it Microsoft, Google, Facebook, etc. Had there been no trust, these companies would never have reach were they are. Managers win daily battles, and top leadership wins business wars, and all these are possible on the basis of trust on each other.
Rest aside organisations, without trust; no family can survive. No relation, whether its husband wife, father son, wife daughter or brother sister, can survive without the foundation stone of trust. Trust brings confidence on each other and allows self-growth and others to grow.