Want to build your business? Build trust

It’s not always easy – but mutual trust is critical to any efficient (and profitable) business. According to one statistic, businesses, where employee trust in their management team is high, are three times as likely to earn high revenue.

So how can YOU build trust?

Well, to be honest, first and foremost you have to mean it. You have to truly, honestly, from the heart, mean it.  Be trustworthy – because it’s an instinct and gut-feeling, quantifiable traits and actions do not always translate to feelings of trust.

Here are 10 things to work on if you want to build trust within your organization:

1. Listening: listen, don’t speak. Try not to be thinking ahead to your answer. Really take into consideration what your colleagues are trying to communicate.

2. Be Open: Honesty and transparency are critical to building trust. You need to make your professional life, decisions, motivations, and actions very transparent. People will trust you if they know you are not hiding anything.

3. It’s ok, be friendly: You can build relationships at work. Balancing closeness with professionalism is tricky, but it’s possible. If you trust them as more than just employees you will earn their trust back and, if you’re lucky, sometimes make a lifelong friend.

4. Delegate, delegate, delegate: Think you can do everything better yourself? It shows. People will know you don’t trust them to do a good job. Delegate low-risk projects, and MENTOR those that are doing them so they can feel proud of the results.

5. Schedule: Weekly check-ins: this helps with our next tip.....

6. Be transparent:  About the big picture and the direction the company is heading. Uncertainty about the future leads to stress and, even worse, rumours.

7. Have integrity: Make promises about raises, projects, or even a luncheon next week and you better be true to your word or people will learn not to believe what you say.

8. Recognition: Don’t be one of those bosses that think too many compliments will make you seem soft. Quite the opposite, actually. Recognize good work and people will know you as the motivating and kind boss, who they can trust with their best efforts. More importantly, they’ll trust you with their mistakes, and that’s where big ideas happen.

9. Let people take on passion projects: Acknowledging their strengths and passions make people feel appreciated. They’re more likely to confide in you about their ideas, as well as stick around longer.

10. Set clear expectations. There is nothing worse for corporate culture than when no one knows how to please management – it leads to discord and employee dissatisfaction en masse, and your name being thrown around the water cooler.

Try to work on these every day, and you’ll soon see a difference in your corporate culture.

At KAN Recruitment we understand the importance of trust. We are in the trusted position of adding to your team and corporate culture. We don’t take that for granted which is why we have a 10 step process to recruitment and offer a guarantee on all candidates we place. 

For more information on our process and reasons businesses choose to work with us head over to our website or send us an email to discuss your next hire over a coffee. Like trust, we also understand the importance of good coffee.