Make Sure Your Employees Trust You–Or Else – Forbes.com
Make Sure Your Employees Trust You–Or Else
Ken Blanchard and Terry Waghorn, 03.23.09, 05:48 PM EDT
Your business needs a higher purpose, and you need to convey it through open communication. Otherwise you’re in trouble.
How do you keep people trusting you at a time like this? Trust is essential in our lives, and it has been since the beginning of our country. Our dollar bills say In God We Trust. Yet today trust is all but vanishing, especially trust in our business leaders, whose greed and short-term selfishness seem to have been a major cause of our economic crisis. With negativity running amok, it is no small wonder that trust within the organizational context is slipping.
When I think about the positions I’ve held in corporate, it is evident that there is no trust. Employees don’t trust management and management rarely trusts employees. I can see it all over. You have management who sets policies based on this lack of trust. Why else would you have the operational systems like timeclocks that are embedded in your sign-on computer protocols. Or what about the tracking of our movements within different departments through personal badges. It is seen in the policies that require outside sales people to check in every morning, regardless of the geographic location of appointments. And then they are told to leave the day’s appointments (which could be easily distributed electronically). I remember a manager who would login remotely to listen to my phone calls with customers. What is THAT about??? Hmmm, can we say, INSANE. And don’t get me wrong, I understand performance measurements. I just wish we designed them from a humanistic standpoint.
What’s disturbing, to say the least, is that employees are chosen people. We are actually picked out from the crowd to join these organizations based on our perceived abilities. Let me reiterate, we are chosen based on our abilities. So, it is safe then to think that we have something to offer. We have talents, skills and abilities to share with our companies. And we want to be successful.
What we need, is to work for organizations who understand our value. The authors point out that upper managers need to be open and that they need to communicate a larger purpose for employees to connect with the company. I’d go further to say that trust is going to be driven by treatment.
So after reading the first couple postings on your blog, I thought I would contribute something of substance. First, I will agree with you that employers must maintain a standard of conduct, goals, systems in place to be able to monitor performance in the work place. Having said that, I feel that I am better suited at my role within the organization where I work than many other individuals due to my passion for the industry where I work, my general knowledge base and experience which I can build upon in my day to day life, and the easy to understand manner in which I can explain complicated subject manner. I understand that some industries such as finance must record every conversation in order to maintain standards for their regulatory body and as an insurance policy in the event of a frivolous lawsuit.. (THIS IS AMERICA, RIGHT) The thing I have a problem with is that the manner in which we place judgment is purely subjective.
I have always said, “boring people have boring kids”. It is a fact! Just take a closer look at every boring adult you’ve ever met and they have probably led sheltered lives and are not spontaneous at all. I like trying everything and will try ALMOST anything once. (Don’t ask me to play Russian Roulette) I’m not an asshole. Ok, I am an asshole, but the charming kind. Anyway, what happens to me if a boring person is grading me based on my performance and they don’t understand the unique energy and perspective that I bring to my clients or into the boardroom? I will receive a low mark in performance… That is what will happen.
Some people are suited for business and playing the political games that come with it. Other people are real and go to work to do a job. I used to be a mortgage broker and my boss and I were good friends. Sometimes, we’d get upset and get mean towards one another. We ended up getting the job done and we’re still great friends. Why?? Because it wasn’t personal. It was business.
Regarding the need for badges which you mentioned in your article, I have to disagree on this opinion because I think badges are a necessary evil. A badge is used for identification purposes just like a PIN unlocks doors in an office complex. Without them, personal safety could become a REAL issue that I don’t want to have to consider. Not to say that I worry about these things, but I won’t say that I haven’t considered buying a gun after seeing all the psychos killing their families and neighbors over the past few weeks. People are nuts.
roocka
April 6, 2009