Building T.R.U.S.T. With Your Employees

Finding and coaching employees is no easy task. In my industry we work with a large number of unskilled laborers or fresh to the job market employees which can be even more challenging. Certainly there are a few bad apples that would likely be resistant to any attempts at motivation, but I have found that most people at their core want to do good work.

Getting the most from your people is largely about building trust. Trust is an assured reliance on the character, ability, strength or truth of something or someone. But remember, trust in a friend or romantic relationship is very different from trust on the job. Your people don’t have to think you are the nicest person around or even the smartest. True to our human nature, most people only think about you in relation to themselves. Thus, the key to building trust with people you lead is to help create a work environment in which they as individuals can succeed.    

With new hires, individuals entering the workforce for the first time and even employees who are perhaps not living up to their potential, a focus or renewed focus on T.R.U.S.T. can get the best out of people. Have you ever heard the saying, “A good coach makes you do the things you don’t want to do so you can become the person you have always wanted to be?” How do you coach people to help them serve your organization and grow as a person and employee?

Building T.R.U.S.T. With Your Employees

Time

Be patient and give people time to learn and master their work. Getting frustrated with them too early in the game makes most people shut down and stop trying. It is reasonable to have expectations of your employees, but make sure they are realistic. Remember, what’s perhaps obvious to you is new to them. It is all too easy as a leader to take for granted how long it took you to learn what you know. 

Reveal

Build trust and loyalty with employees by revealing their superpowers. Don’t laugh, we all have them. Every single one of us has at least a few things we are better at than most people. Identifying these things is the key to finding work you are good at and will enjoy. Especially when it comes to people new to the workforce, underdeveloped or struggling employees-- helping them reveal their super powers, their unique talents and skills, can develop loyalty like nothing else. Think back to people in your life who have helped you discover and uncover your strengths, it creates a strong bond and respect.

Use

After you reveal someone’s talents, use them. Find a good salesperson? Let them sell. Have an employee that is consistently great with customers, put her or him on the frontline. Let fish swim and rabbits hop. One of the keys to a great team is give people more of the work they are good at and less of the work they find challenging. Sure there are benchmarks we all must hit, but if you have a salesperson that is terrible with their paperwork but great at bring in new business, consider getting them some help to free them to do more of what they excel at.

Study

Your job as a manager and leader isn’t to do your people’s work for them, it is to study the business to figure out what is working and what is not. Don’t just chalk up a problem to bad people, really study the situation to uncover the real issues. And when an employee is underperforming, skip the personal or pejorative and stick to the facts. Reviews, assessments and evaluations done regularly and thoughtfully will help develop a great team and encourage trust and feedback.

Thank

As humans, most of us are natural approval seekers, it’s simply built into our DNA to want the approval of whatever “tribe” we are a part of.  Thank yous and recognition positively reinforce good work. Likewise, a genuine thank you is so much more motivating than nearly anything else. Certainly, every employee wants a paycheck but a paycheck, while a need, is a gimme.  A paycheck rarely makes anyone feel appreciated, just grateful to have employment. Recognition and thank yous make people feel seen.

T.R.U.S.T. with your employees and team members won't happen overtime.  Like most good things in life it will take some time to build.  But why not start today by writing down these five steps on a 3 X 5 card and putting them into action?  Afterall, it's just a matter of T.R.U.S.T.!