How to go from change-fatigued to change-fit: one simple hack!
Whether you are new at this remote working thing or you are trying to lead a team that is now dispersed, trust is the critical ingredient to success.
Let’s explore five guaranteed ways to lose the trust of your boss, your team or your colleagues when working remotely, and more importantly, the antidotes to these trust breakers.
Trust Breaker #1: Making sh@t up!
Trust is built on respect. The moment your boss or teammates get wind that you are making stuff up, about what you’re working on, what you’re competent at, where you are, what you are doing or definitely making rubbish up about others, you will lose their respect immediately. The intention for making stuff up is not normally to create trouble or covering our own ass. Often it’s about covering our own insecurities. It’s never a good strategy! Being found out is inevitable and in a virtual world, it’s hard to recover from.
Trust Maker #1: Be an Open Book: Transparency Rules
Being an open book can feel challenging; we feel vulnerable and it’s risky, which is why some people shy away from it. And when working remotely, it’s absolutely imperative. Being open and transparent about yourself, how you feel, your competence, your limitations, what you're working on, might feel risky, but the more risk, often the more reward. It also means there are rarely surprises. And if you want to build trust, you can’t have surprises. Remember, it is the vulnerability that connects us humans.
Trust Breaker #2: Staying silent!
If something is concerning you or things aren’t working, keeping this to yourself is not helpful. People are not mind readers. And when we are working remotely, your boss or team don't get the opportunity to read your facial cues or body language to sus out what might be troubling you. Likewise, staying silent about what is expected of your team in terms of behaviours, work priorities and deadlines is also not helpful. In the absence of clarity, your team will work on something, but it may not be the best use of their valuable time. No one likes to feel like they have wasted their time on useless or unnecessary work.
Trust Maker #2: Be Upfront: Set clear boundaries and expectations (re. work and behaviour)!
A fast and effective way to build trust is to create clear goals, boundaries and expectations and share and track them as a team. The key, of course, is gaining buy-in and sticking to them and/or re-adjusting when appropriate, as a team. Try out our three-step approach:
Strategise: individual ideal outcomes/expectations
Share: thinking and ideas as a team
Sync up: expectations and goals as a team
Trust Breaker #3: Being uncontactable
This doesn’t mean you need to be on standby 24/7 or respond to every email within 30 secs of it pinging. It means that your team, your boss and your clients need to be able to know how and when they can contact you. Failing to communicate with others how to best do that and then failing to be contactable is one way for people to start to fill the void with ‘worst-case scenario’ assumptions and losing their trust in you.
Trust Maker #3: Be a proactive communicator!
Communicate, communicate and communicate more. Communicate your availability, the best way to contact you, ideal timeframes, not-negotiable times and so on. Use varied modes of communication and embrace technology to ensure everyone is clear and messages are effective.
Trust Breaker #4: Over-promising & under-delivering
No-one appreciates when people talk themselves up, the hours they’ve allegedly put in or the work they’ve done, only to consistently miss deadlines, deliver sloppy work or blame other people, technology or the system. It lets the team down, your client or customers down and it lets your reputation down. You lose your credibility and this leads to a lack of trust and subsequent micro-management.
Trust Maker #4: Be realistic and responsible: Celebrate output not hours
Be realistic with your boss and team about the work you will produce, the timelines, the deadlines and the quality. Being responsible, make a promise to each other: I’m going to deliver on this thing, and if I can’t deliver it to you, I’m going to communicate why and next steps. As a team make the shift to celebrating and rewarding the work you all complete, not the hours invested! Make the shift from Outcome-Focussed to Hours-Focussed.
Trust Breaker #5: All work & no play
It’s tempting sometimes when we are under the pump to get straight into business and focus purely on the work. But it is equally important that the team feel like they matter, as a person, not just the work they produce. The more we know someone, their likes, their dislikes, their preferences; the more likely it is we trust them. People need to feel like they have been listened to, that they can speak freely. Our team need to feel like their boss and teammates actually care about them as a person. People need to earn trust. Focussing purely on the work can be an unintentional trust breaker, as it may come across as cold and people’s natural barriers will go up.
Trust Maker #5: Be compassionate: Take time to connect
When working remotely, we need to be more international than ever to create opportunities to connect and get to know the person. Taking the time to ask questions about how they are feeling, about them personally and listening before speaking, is one simple way to build trust. Take some time out to do some fun virtual team building activities (if you want some ideas, drop me a line, we have stacks of fun virtual ones we can share with you).
Here's a little tip and challenge for you!
We actually all know what we need to do! The question is whether you act on it or not! Take our August ‘Be a Trust Maker’ #2020Challenge so you can continue to build stronger, more trusting relationships at work to optimise your’s and your teams' performance!
Stay safe, keep learning
#2020Challenge: Be a Trust Maker!
Working virtually has many benefits for individuals, teams and organisations. But if not done well, it can cause havoc to the level of trust in a team and consequently, performance.
Trust is the critical ingredient necessary for remote work to actually work!
Whilst trust levels might be high between individuals, the disruptive environment we’re operating in can create tension, stress and distrust. How do we build more Trust Makers in the team?
Download our #2020Challenge and take part in our August Challenge to start building more Trust today!
BLYTHE ROWE & Her Life on Heels.
The founder and director of Human Incite, is widely recognised for her passion, energy and her ability to shake things up. Blythe is brilliant at revving-up productivity and performance in organisations. She is on a mission to rid our workplaces of toxic behaviours, build meaningful relationships, personally and professionally and create workplaces worth belonging. Her enthusiasm simply is infectious!