Trust: A Driver of Success
In his book The Speed of Trust: (The One Thing that Changes Everything),published in 2006, Stephen Covey explains that lack of trust is a cause of failure in many continuous improvement projects. After all, how can you complete a project if there is no trust between the employees and partners? How can a product or service be sold if you’ve lost your customers’ trust?
Let’s take a look at the impacts of lack of trust and the ways you can improve it.
Repercussions of lack of trust
Lack of trust can have significant consequences for a business. Below are the key ones.
Lack of trust among employees
- Decrease in collaboration among employees and between departments
- Deterioration of the work atmosphere caused by a toxic environment
- Decline in employee motivation, commitment, and well-being
- Increase in turnover rate
Lack of trust among partners
- Weakening of business relationships
- Risk of partnerships breaking up
- Tarnished reputation due to partners sharing their bad experience
Customers’ lack of trust in the business
- Loss of customers because they are switching to a competitor in whom they have more trust
- Decline in sales, because they are uncertain about buying
- Weakened reputation because of negative online reviews
What do businesses do to address lack of trust? They add validation and control steps, which make the process more cumbersome. The good news is that trust lost can be rebuilt.
8 measures that promote trust
There are several ways a company can build and maintain trust.
1. Trust in others!
You need to start by trusting others before they can trust you back.
2. Promote transparency
People will quite easily trust you if you give them the “real deal”… even in delicate situations.
3. Acknowledge mistakes
Everybody makes mistakes, even the best of us. By acknowledging a mistake, you can move on to finding solutions faster.
4. Respect commitments
In a nutshell, walk the talk. Deliver on your promises.
5. Improve continuously
Always do better than yesterday, but not as good as tomorrow.
6. Communicate the vision, mission, values, objectives, and expectations clearly
For everybody to paddle in the same direction, they have to know where they’re going.
7. Encourage accountability
You are responsible for your words, actions, and decisions. Get your team members to do likewise.
8. Listen first
We have two ears and only one mouth. There’s a reason for that. Listen twice as much as you speak.
By developing a relationship of trust among stakeholders of a process, you can eliminate several sources of waste, such as wait time, unnecessary movements, defects, and lost creativity. You can lower costs at the same time.
« Les entreprises qui bénéficient d’une confiance élevée de la part de leurs employés sont parmi les meilleures et génèrent des rendements trois fois supérieurs à la moyenne du top 500 de S&P. »
Trust acts as a driver of success, and its fuel is largely made up of communication and collaboration. It helps to increase productivity, stimulate innovation, and create value.
Remember Covey’s words:
Nothing is as fast as the speed of trust.
Nothing is as profitable as the economics of trust.
Nothing is as essential for leadership as the relationship of trust.
