Enquirer Digest #0012 Rebuilding Trust
Hello Enquirers
This edition's theme is Trust. Trust is an area that has always attracted attention. Trust has emotional aspects from an individual perspective. From a corporate perspective trust is one of the main pillars of a well-functioning corporate culture.
According to PwC's Global CEO Survey of 2016 PwC reported that 55% of CEOs think that a lack of trust is a threat to their organization’s growth. But most have done little to increase trust, mainly because they aren’t sure where to start.
Similarly in PwC's 2022 Global CEO survey report trust is again a focus point for corporates. The report states that:
We found that highly trusted companies are more likely to have made net-zero commitments and to have tied their CEO’s compensation to nonfinancial outcomes, such as employee engagement scores and gender diversity in the workforce. Correlation is not causation, and we’ll continue to explore these results. But at first blush, they suggest a relationship between trust and the ability to drive change —a means of moving beyond short-term, “it’s the next leader’s problem” thinking."
Trust in Teams
Trust has also found its place in relation to teams. Patrick Lencioni is famous for his book "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team". Patrick Lencioni explains that trust is the foundation of all high-performing teams. He defines trust as "the willingness to be vulnerable with others." Without trust, teams cannot effectively communicate, collaborate, or hold each other accountable.
As can be seen trust is truly one of the pillars of the corporate world.
This is exactly why I had chosen the podcast below as this week's podcast. It's from Coaching for leader's podcast and Dr Henry Cloud is the guest.
Who is Henry Cloud? Dr. Cloud is an acclaimed leadership expert and best-selling author. Drawing on his extensive experience in business, leadership consulting, and clinical psychology, to impart practical and effective advice for improving leadership skills and business performance.
In this podcast his book Trust: Knowing When to Give It, When to Withhold It, How to Earn It, and How to Fix It When It Gets Broken is at the center of discussion.
Being an executive coach for over 5 years I have come across "trust" many times in my sessions. Many new leaders struggle with the concept and how to establish trust in their teams. Although the podcast is more about repairing trust it does shed a good amount of light on trust essentials.
Self-awareness and its role in trust repair
What had really struck me was the fact that repairing trust is not about the person who betrayed your trust, but it is about you. Getting betrayed hits, us hard. This shakes us and our judgement gets clouded. We generally tend to react with our habitual reactions. Successful executives don't react, they gather and call on the people they trust. These can be their team members or a coach or mentor. They tend to show vulnerability that they might not be in a situation to decide, and they call on their support group.
Repairing trust starts with you where self-awareness is key in recognizing one's reactive behavior and calling in assistance from your support group.
In relation to this week’s subject the podcasts to listen to is:
The Starting Point for Repairing Trust, with Henry Cloud Episode 626 of the Coaching for Leaders podcast
Today's Article
Today's article on this week's theme is by Paul J. Zak. His article was published in the Harvard Business Review. The article is The Neuroscience of Trust.
Paul J. Zak hypothesized that there must be a neurologic signal that indicates when we should trust someone. This was related to the Oxytocin hormone. Oxytocin is a hormone that is released when we interact with people we trust. It helps to promote feelings of empathy, compassion, and cooperation. Oxytocin also helps to reduce stress and anxiety, which can make us more likely to trust others.
In the article, Zak describes a study in which he and his colleagues found that people who were given a nasal spray containing oxytocin were more likely to trust strangers than those who were given a placebo. The study also found that oxytocin increased the amount of money that people were willing to give to strangers.
Zak believes that oxytocin plays a critical role in the development of trust. He argues that oxytocin helps us to feel safe and secure, which makes us more likely to open up to others and to form trusting relationships.
Through experiments and surveys, Zak identified eight management behaviors that foster trust.
Ovation: Celebrating the contributions of high performers.
eXpectation: Setting clear expectations for employees.
Yield: Giving employees discretion in how they do their work.
Transfer: Sharing information broadly.
Openness: Being transparent and honest with employees.
Caring: Showing concern for employees' well-being.
Invest: Investing in employees' development.
Natural: Being authentic and genuine with employees.
Today’s Quote
Today's Quote is from Jodi Picoult
"Trust is like a mirror: you can only see it if you look into it." Jodi Picoult