How Managers Can Build Trust With Employees At Work

“You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.” - Anton Chekhov

In a 2017 scaled US study, researchers found that people at high-trust companies reported 74% less stress.

All throughout my professional career at ProofHub, I have discovered that cultivating employees’ trust at the workplace is not as easy as it sounds.

Whether you are a manager or leader, you cannot expect to build trust with your workforce unless you match your words with actions. **
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To begin with, trust at the workplace is a two-way street. You have to believe in the abilities of your team to get the job done efficiently; you should be confident of their skills and competencies. When your workforce feels trusted and valued, they reciprocate. **
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When I started my professional journey as a Chief Marketing Officer, I discovered that my team was reluctant to share their ideas, feedback, concerns, and suggestions as I was making earnest efforts to make them feel comfortable working with me.

I have always believed that true leaders do not try to unnecessarily showcase authority unless the situation warrants such a reaction.

Rather, inspiring leadershave always helped their teams learn, grow, and succeed by not walking ahead of them, but taking everyone together towards accomplishing common goals.

So, I realized soon that I will have to win my team’s trust first before expecting the same from them. One thing that I learned early on during my professional journey was - your actions speak louder than words.

Here, I am sharing some tried and tested strategies that helped me a lot as I made efforts to build a trusted relationship with my team members. I firmly believe that these practices will work effectively for leaders who are looking for ways to create a thriving workplace environment where there’s mutual trust and respect.

Ways To Win Your Employees’ Trust And Respect

Trust is earned, not asked for:

“Trust me, I will do all that I can for you to help you grow and succeed.” Do you often say these lines to your team hoping they will do so? Believe me, you have to earn and not ask for it! Susan Ashford, the author of “The Power of Flexing”, says, “Workers want their leaders to display confidence and compassion. They want a leader who empathizes with them and has faith in their capabilities to get things done.”

Now, there are some things that managers can do to earn their employees’ trust. For example, encouraging open-door policy, understanding their personality and unique traits, communicating regularly with them, making genuine efforts to address their concerns at the workplace, and showing willingness to help them.

Managers should remember that even small acts of kindness can go a long way in establishing trust with your team members. Once, I went to one of my team members’ home to check about his mother’s health. He was on leave for a few days due to his mother’s prolonged illness. He was so happy and grateful that his manager had taken care to personally visit him.

Count results, not working hours:

Just because an employee is working for 8 hours in the office does not guarantee that they would be productive. I believe that in days when remote work and hybrid work are trending, it would be unfair to employees if their managers assess work by logged hours per day rather than the end results.

A survey from FlexJobs, which leases co-working space, 80% of the 7,300 surveyed workers said they’d be more willing to stay at their current jobs if given flexible work options.

Managers should grant them a certain level of autonomy about how they utilize their time. I don’t really care if my remote team members are working from home or from any other location, if they are doing their job efficiently. Some of my remote team members are productive during the day while some of them are comfortable working in the evening. So, I let them schedule their work the way that suits them the best.

Transparency is the best way forward:

As a manager, it’s not easy to tell someone their services are no longer required or to provide constructive feedback. It's a natural tendency for humans to believe that giving bad news to someone will make them form negative opinions about us. However, trustworthy leaders develop the courage and are honest to share bad news before it gets too late.

Top leaders and managers should take the initiative and start the conversation with employees, even if it might be difficult for them. Trying to postpone the inevitable will only lead to gossiping, speculation, and circulation of rumors. Instead, timely communication will add clarity to the situation to others about where they stand.

Employees might find it (the bad news) a hard pill to swallow, but they are likely to respect a manager who is upfront, talks straight, and talks honestly about difficult situations.

Own your mistakes

Weak leaders feel insecure and threatened by every team member. Any mistakes in their performance makes them sensitive as it will make them look bad. It’s the ability to take ownership for mistakes that makes great leaders stand apart as this trait makes them look more human, approachable, and more importantly, a responsible and accountable leader who does not place blame (for failure) on others.

Now, there’s thisfear of managers or other senior leaders losing respect among junior, less experienced team members as the latter might see the former as “infallible” - someone who cannot make mistakes and do their job perfectly. This is not true. Rather, leaders who accept their mistakes and failures promote honesty in the workplace and encourage others to take accountability for their actions.

Appreciate, acknowledge your team’s hard work:

How our self-confidence reaches cloud nine whenever we are appreciated for our hard work and good performance. The same applies to our team members too. Managers should give credit where it’s due. Do not just celebrate big accomplishments but small wins too. Never hold back to shower words of praise to those whose hard work has led to your team’s success.

Managers taking all the credit for their team’s success, or trying to showcase individual’s work as their own will sow the seeds of bitter resentment and lack of mutual trust and respect within the team.A recent study by Globoforce showed that employees who received recognition from their leaders were significantly more likely to trust them.

The Final Thought

As mentioned earlier, establishing trust with your workforce is quintessential to your team’s as well as organizational success. This should be the first step that managers should take as soon they start working with a new team. However, building trust is not possible in a day or two.

For managers and other senior leaders, it’s important to do things that show your genuine consideration towards your employees. Five effective strategies listed in this post can help you go a long way in fostering trust with your team members, which will do everyone - your team, you, and your organization the world of good. Good luck!