According to Ghazinejad, Hussein & Zidane (2018), trust can facilitate the exchange of information and reduce control and its associated costs, as well as make relationship more efficient. Trust enables a team to work efficiently to accomplish mutual goals and maintain a good morale when doing so. Without trust, they are just a group of individuals working together often deviating from achieving from the required objectives. Lack of trust invites problems like skepticism, holding information to self or a limited number of people, uneven distribution of responsibilities, lack of cooperation and support among team members and gossiping among others. Even if the group consist of the most talented of people, without trust, they are merely a group of brilliant people who would rather put in single efforts in hopes of achieving success than working collectively. Trust is like an adhesive that binds the whole group together making them a team that share common goals, mutual commitment and joint accountability.
Trust provides a sense of security to the team members. And when the team feels safe, they are able to open up, become vulnerable and dare to take risks. Otherwise, they are just protecting themselves and making excuses for the works undone. They would hesitate to own up the work. A leader needs to take upon various ways to inculcate trust in their subordinates.
1. Be open about yourself
Communication is crucial for laying the foundation of trust. A leader has to be transparent to their subordinates. Bluntly sharing them your ideas, being truthful about everything, sharing personal stories, admitting when you are wrong and being humble are some of the things that a leader can do to gain trust of the employees. When a leader is admitting that they made certain mistakes and owning up to it, others too will not shy away from taking accountability of their deeds. It is always easy to function when people are accountable for their actions be it favorable or not.
2. Strengthen the employees
When employees are urged to work and come up with ideas instead of just following the orders, they are able to grasp a better understanding of what they can deliver and what they can’t.
Besides, acknowledging your team members whenever they do something good inspires them to continue doing that. Giving credit is something leaders can do that would help them gain trust of their employees. These sort of activities that may look small not only leads to employees trusting their leader but also implicate the trust, a leader has towards his employees.
3. Paving a way for effective communication
It is always the free minds that is the most creative. It is only when people are allowed to express themselves freely without the fear of being judged, that they can truly communicate what they actually feel. It gives them room to consider new ideas. Leaders should enable, support and mentor the employees. When, the leader starts listening to the employees, and provides space for them to freely question the authority, then, people start trusting the leader. On the other hand, the leader too has to communicate the philosophies and priorities effectively, involve them in the decision making and provide them with sufficient information enabling them to make appropriate decisions about their work and release control (Kinjerski & Skrypnek, 2006). Through two- way communication, parties are able to obtain a better understanding of dilemmas and challenges being faced by the other, have opportunities to explain and reassess their actions along with the underlying factors that led to such behavior (Bligh, 2017). The existence of effective two way communication helps build trust among each other.
4. Doing the right thing
Leaders are the role models for the employees. They are someone who would model the way for the subordinates. They have the "celebrity” image in an organization. Even the smallest thing they do are constantly being noticed by others. It is therefore crucial for leaders to act in a right manner. Whenever there are arguments between employees, leaders should urge them to discuss, put forward their views, and prospect the possible solution and not judge them based on past experiences, personal prejudices or by being biased. Making the right decision makes the leader as someone whom the employees can trust upon.
Trust plays a critical role in leadership. It may not be wrong to say that trust is the root of all "great leadership”. Leaders who avoid connecting with the employees are less successful in managing the organization than the ones who communicate and build a trustworthy relationship with the employees.
References
Bligh, M. C. (2017). Leadership and trust. In Leadership Today (pp. 21-42). Springer, Cham.
Ghazinejad, M., Hussein, B. A., & Zidane, Y. J. T. (2018). Impact of Trust, Commitment, and Openness on Research Project Performance: Case Study in a Research Institute. Social Sciences, 7 (2), 22.
Kinjerski, V., & Skrypnek, B. J. (2006). Creating organizational conditions that foster employee spirit at work. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 27 (4), 280-295.
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According to Ghazinejad, Hussein & Zidane (2018), trust can facilitate the exchange of information and reduce control and its associated costs, as well as make relationship more efficient. Trust enables a team to work efficiently to accomplish mutual goals and maintain a good morale when doing so. Without trust, they are just a group of individuals working together often deviating from achieving from the required objectives. Lack of trust invites problems like skepticism, holding information to self or a limited number of people, uneven distribution of responsibilities, lack of cooperation and support among team members and gossiping among others. Even if the group consist of the most talented of people, without trust, they are merely a group of brilliant people who would rather put in single efforts in hopes of achieving success than working collectively. Trust is like an adhesive that binds the whole group together making them a team that share common goals, mutual commitment and joint accountability.
Trust provides a sense of security to the team members. And when the team feels safe, they are able to open up, become vulnerable and dare to take risks. Otherwise, they are just protecting themselves and making excuses for the works undone. They would hesitate to own up the work. A leader needs to take upon various ways to inculcate trust in their subordinates.
1. Be open about yourself
Communication is crucial for laying the foundation of trust. A leader has to be transparent to their subordinates. Bluntly sharing them your ideas, being truthful about everything, sharing personal stories, admitting when you are wrong and being humble are some of the things that a leader can do to gain trust of the employees. When a leader is admitting that they made certain mistakes and owning up to it, others too will not shy away from taking accountability of their deeds. It is always easy to function when people are accountable for their actions be it favorable or not.
2. Strengthen the employees
When employees are urged to work and come up with ideas instead of just following the orders, they are able to grasp a better understanding of what they can deliver and what they can’t.
Besides, acknowledging your team members whenever they do something good inspires them to continue doing that. Giving credit is something leaders can do that would help them gain trust of their employees. These sort of activities that may look small not only leads to employees trusting their leader but also implicate the trust, a leader has towards his employees.
3. Paving a way for effective communication
It is always the free minds that is the most creative. It is only when people are allowed to express themselves freely without the fear of being judged, that they can truly communicate what they actually feel. It gives them room to consider new ideas. Leaders should enable, support and mentor the employees. When, the leader starts listening to the employees, and provides space for them to freely question the authority, then, people start trusting the leader. On the other hand, the leader too has to communicate the philosophies and priorities effectively, involve them in the decision making and provide them with sufficient information enabling them to make appropriate decisions about their work and release control (Kinjerski & Skrypnek, 2006). Through two- way communication, parties are able to obtain a better understanding of dilemmas and challenges being faced by the other, have opportunities to explain and reassess their actions along with the underlying factors that led to such behavior (Bligh, 2017). The existence of effective two way communication helps build trust among each other.
4. Doing the right thing
Leaders are the role models for the employees. They are someone who would model the way for the subordinates. They have the "celebrity” image in an organization. Even the smallest thing they do are constantly being noticed by others. It is therefore crucial for leaders to act in a right manner. Whenever there are arguments between employees, leaders should urge them to discuss, put forward their views, and prospect the possible solution and not judge them based on past experiences, personal prejudices or by being biased. Making the right decision makes the leader as someone whom the employees can trust upon.
Trust plays a critical role in leadership. It may not be wrong to say that trust is the root of all "great leadership”. Leaders who avoid connecting with the employees are less successful in managing the organization than the ones who communicate and build a trustworthy relationship with the employees.
References
Bligh, M. C. (2017). Leadership and trust. In Leadership Today (pp. 21-42). Springer, Cham.
Ghazinejad, M., Hussein, B. A., & Zidane, Y. J. T. (2018). Impact of Trust, Commitment, and Openness on Research Project Performance: Case Study in a Research Institute. Social Sciences, 7 (2), 22.
Kinjerski, V., & Skrypnek, B. J. (2006). Creating organizational conditions that foster employee spirit at work. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 27 (4), 280-295.