June 2021
Let's Talk About Trust: Why Trusting Your Team Matters Most
One of the most important things in any business is trust. Your whole business is built on it – trust between you and clients, you’ll provide the services they paid for and they’ll pay for said services. Then there’s trust between you and your team. You need to trust that they’ll do their jobs, and they need to trust that you’ll treat them with respect and allow them to perform well in their roles (no micro-managing!).
At the moment in England, government advice is to still work from home if you can. Allowing your team to work remotely requires a lot of trust, both ways. In this instance you want to trust that your team won’t drop productivity, and they want to trust that you’ll be understanding of circumstance where that may happen for legitimate reasons (it is, after all, still quite a stressful time). A lot of your team are also probably trusting you to not unnecessarily force them into an office if they don’t feel safe to do so.
If, however, after just over a year of your team proving they deserve your trust by working from home you’re still having trust issues, perhaps we can help? Let’s talk about trust…
The Heart of Your Business
Sitting at the centre of your organisation are your employees, all of whom are individuals to which you have managed to sell the idea of your business’ dream direction. They’re the people who will go out and make sure the business succeeds and that its customers – new and old – are well looked after.
Of course, they’re also human – and as such, are prone to distraction. In the modern world, those distractions come thick and fast, with the likes of the FIFA World Cup, social media and every obstacle that comes with remote working standing between them and productivity.
Business owners therefore must trust that their employees (no matter how human they are) can still get their work done, even with everything the modern world throws at them.
Why Invest in Trust?
It isn’t, however, just about keeping employees focused on the end goal and free of distraction; there are a number of benefits to investing in building trust with your team – all of which will help your business to move forward with confidence.
Chief amongst those benefits are the numerous skills individuals can develop when they’re trusted by their employer. Time management is something which many struggle with, for example, but given the opportunity to explore how they work effectively and trusted to action that plan, employees will find themselves managing their work days much more efficiently.
There’s also the sense of happiness they feel when trusted – just as in the wider world, you feel good when somebody trusts you. This can strengthen workplace relationships, reduce staff turnover, and create a workplace which has people excited to join in.
Trust also plays a huge role in implementing remote working, and as you’ll know from our previous blogs, there are plenty of ways for your business to benefit from that alone.
A Two-Way Street
Trusting your employees is not the end of the road, however – it’s most definitely a two-way street. You need to be able to earn their trust in order to maximise the above benefits and create a strong team dynamic.
Doing this requires a few key actions:
- Communicating with your team clearly and often, making sure they know they can talk to you whilst also being confident in their roles.
- Providing the right resources for them to excel in their jobs and streamline their workflows appropriately.
- Delivering on promises, no matter how big or small – trust can develop more easily from consistency.
- Leading by example in every aspect, from how you conduct yourself in the office to how you participate in a recycling strategy.
The Strongest Team
With both parties trusting one another, you can pat yourself on the back for creating a team strong enough to weather most storms. You’ll quickly find that trust is instrumental in moving your team in one singular direction – towards the business’ goals – and that everybody is happier for being in an environment where trust is allowed to thrive.
After all, a team that trusts one another can depend on one another – exactly what your business needs.
Provide your team with the bespoke CRM solution they need to maximise their productivity. Simply get in touch to arrange a free demo, or explore our website to find out more about Lunar CRM.