Working Resources is a San
Francisco Bay Area Firm Executive Coaching Helping Companies Assess, Select, Coach and Retain
Emotionally Intelligent Leaders; Strategic Talent Management; Leadership
Development; Competency Modeling; Succession Management; and Leadership &
Team Building Retreats
Dr.
Maynard Brusman
Consulting Psychologist and Executive Coach
I recently spoke with the VP of Human
Resources of a San Francisco Bay Area company regarding providing executive
coaching for the company CEO. She asked some very insightful questions to determine fit. She specifically
wanted to know how I worked with different personality styles, and my methods
for initiating changes in thinking and behavior.
The VP of HR and I spoke about my approach to
coaching, and my belief that possessing a psychological understanding of human
behavior based on neuroscience and business acumen are important competencies
for coaching executives. We also
spoke of the need for her organization to create a culture where innovation and
creativity flourishes.
The VP of HR is interested in partnering with
me in helping create a collaborative and emotionally intelligent corporate
culture based on openness, trust and respect. We further discussed how company executives can benefit
by working with a seasoned executive coach.
Leadership Trust Deficit
Employees
want consistency between their leaders’ words and actions. But
only 11 percent strongly agree that their managers “walk the talk,” a 2011
Maritz poll reveals.
Fairly
or unfairly, leaders’ behaviors are magnified and weighted, including their
values, work ethics, integrity and perceived honesty.
Employees have high moral expectations for those they choose to follow.
3
Types of Trust
There are three different forms of trust, according to “The Enemies of Trust,” a February 2002 Harvard Business Review article by leadership experts Robert Galford
and Anne Seibold Drapeau:
- Strategic trust—the trust employees have in the
people running the show to make the right strategic decisions. Do top managers
have the vision and competence to set the right course, intelligently allocate
resources, fulfill the mission and help the company succeed?
- Personal trust—the trust employees have in their
managers. Do managers treat employees fairly? Do they consider employees’ needs
when making decisions about the business and put the company’s needs ahead of
their own?
- Organizational trust—the trust people have in the company
itself. Are processes well designed, consistent and fair? Does the company make
good on its promises?
Clearly, these three types of trust
are distinct, but they’re linked in important ways. For example, every time a manager
violates her direct reports’ personal trust, organizational trust is shaken.
The
Trinity of Trust
While many factors contribute to our perceptions of
trustworthiness, three vital traits comprise “the trinity of trust,” writes
management consultant James Robbins in Nine
Minutes on Monday:
Character:
What do your employees see when they look at you? How do they perceive your
values, work ethic, integrity and honesty?
Competence:
Employees
place more trust in you when they believe you’re capable of effective
leadership. This does not mean you’re
the smartest one in the room—a position of superiority that, in fact,
undermines perceived competency.
Caring: The
most neglected ingredient in the trust trinity is the ability to show you care.
Employees want to feel that they matter.
Repair the Trust Deficit
Business professors Lynn Offermann and
Lisa Rosh urge leaders to do a better job of opening up to people in a June
2012 Harvard
Business Review article.
“Studies indicate that senior leaders who
reveal something about their lives outside the office do so without undermining
their authority,” they write, while cautioning against excessively intimate
disclosures.
Offermann
and Rosh offer the following tips for a balanced approach to “skillful
self-disclosure”:
- Open
up. During the course of your workday,
squeeze in an occasional impromptu conversation with a subordinate about
interests other than work, such as children’s activities, restaurants,
sports, movies and the like. Share a glimpse into your personal life while
taking time to listen.
- Empathize.
Offer brief, personal acknowledgments of significant events in employees’
lives, such as additions to family, marriage, family death and serious
illness. Share how a similar event impacted your life without
overshadowing the employee’s circumstance.
- Remain
professional. Share information that enhances
the work relationship, yet doesn’t harm your reputation. Exercise
discretion; avoid oversharing.
5
Steps Toward a Culture of Trust
Improve your connection to people and build trust with
these techniques:
- Go on a walkabout: Walk
around the office each day to touch base with individual contributors to your
company’s success. While email and group meetings are important, one-on-one
“face time” is critical.
- Capture vital statistics:
Learn about each employee’s life: spouse’s name, children’s names and ages,
major hobbies. Use questions to elicit meaningful information: “Where are you
from?” or “What do you do on your days off?”
- Find similarities:
Instead of focusing on differences, find mutual interests (hobbies, desires,
career goals).
- Ask for ideas and feedback:
Trust must already be established for people to be honest with you. Ask what
they need to perform their jobs better. Acknowledge that you hear their
opinions and will think about what they’ve said. Don’t dismiss or argue the
merits of their input; offer a simple and genuine “thanks for sharing
that.”
- Acknowledge progress and milestones: In
many organizations, problems are solved, barriers are surmounted, tasks are
completed… and nothing is noted. People crave acknowledgment and recognition,
so seize these opportunities to build trust.
When
Trust Is Broken
When trust is broken, take immediate
steps to fix the problem instead of ignoring or downplaying it. Employees will be skeptical and/or
suspicious, so choose your words carefully.
You needn’t have all the answers or a
detailed plan. There
can even be a lag between naming the problem and describing what you’ll do.
Just let people know that you’re aware of the issue and its impact on them, and
that you’re committed to setting things right.
Identify
the problem as precisely as possible. Is there an adversarial
relationship between people in the sales offices and those at headquarters? Are
people doing end runs around a department that has a reputation for arrogance?
Imagine
what success will look like in practice. You may, for example,
establish clear roles and responsibilities, an exceptions policy, a dispute
resolution process, and submission and response protocols. In meetings, you can
spend less time assigning blame and more time on what the staff is doing right.
With
greater trust, managers and leaders can reap tangible business benefits:
increased productivity, improved performance and genuine employee engagement.
Are
you working in a company where executive coaches provide leadership development
for emotionally intelligent leaders? Does your organization
provide executive coaching for leaders? Sustainable leaders tap into their
emotional intelligence and social intelligence skills to create a more
compelling future.
One
of the most powerful questions you can ask yourself is “How do our leaders
build trust at work?” Emotionally intelligent and socially
intelligent organizations provide executive coaching as part of their
leadership development programs.
Working
with a seasoned cognitive executive coach and leadership consultant trained in
emotional intelligence and incorporating assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-I, CPI 260 and Denison Culture Survey can help leaders
develop a culture of trust. You can become a leader who models
emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to
become fully engaged with the vision, mission and strategy of your company.
About
Dr. Maynard Brusman
Dr.
Maynard Brusman is a consulting psychologist, executive coach and trusted
advisor to senior leadership teams. He is the president of
Working Resources, a leadership consulting and executive coaching firm. We
specialize in helping San Francisco Bay Area companies and law firms assess,
select, coach, and retain emotionally intelligent leaders. Maynard is a highly sought-after speaker and
workshop leader. He facilitates leadership retreats in Northern California and
Costa Rica. The Society for Advancement of Consulting (SAC) awarded Dr. Maynard
Brusman "Board Approved" designations in the specialties of Executive
Coaching and Leadership Development.
Subscribe to Working Resources FREE E-mail Newsletter:
http://www.workingresources.com
Visit Maynard’s Blog: http://www.workingresourcesblog.com
E-mail: [email protected]
Voice: 415-546-1252
Connect with me on these Social Media sites.
http://twitter.com/drbrusman
http://www.facebook.com/maynardbrusman
http://www.linkedin.com/in/maynardbrusman
http://www.youtube.com/user/maynardbrusman
Recent Comments