Improve Your Leadership by Showing Trust March 25, 2010
Posted by dennissommer in Leadership.Tags: About Dennis Sommer, Business, Executive Business Advisers, Leadership, Staff Development, staff performance, Trust
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Is leadership and staff performance improvement a goal of yours this year? Showing trust in your team is one proven leadership skill you should focus on to create highly productive employees.
Being a business owner, executive or manager in today’s business climate is not easy. You can’t do it yourself, so the best way to exceed your business goals is to have a team of highly productive employees working for you.
How can having trust help?
Trust in your team, their trust in you and the trust between the team members is the core ingredient that holds everything together. You develop trust by setting guidelines for team behavior and decision making, where the people have certain freedoms to make decisions, take risks and speak their minds. They will also have certain obligations to always speak the truth, work with other teams, be accountable for decisions and actions and to learn from the their mistakes.
Business executives who have rules and policies for everything create an environment of bureaucracy and stifle team performance. The environment is orderly and structured, but leaves little room for team members to use their own judgment, take ownership or be motivated to complete tasks quickly. On the other hand, executives who have no guidelines for the team run the risk of leading a team in chaos. Neither of these work.
Implementing guidelines where people are trusted, promotes an environment where team members will give their best, produce more and with improved quality.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Dennis Sommer
CEO, Executive Business Advisers
My specialty is helping companies improve their business growth, sales and marketing performance.
Business improvement specialties include: business startup , business growth , sales , marketing , business coaching , strategic planning and customer retention
Call me today to schedule a free consultation: 800-627-6512
I believe one can also build trust by:
Believe in the individual’s capabilities.
Offering help when they confront obstacles.
Suggesting corrective measures when they are off target.
Trust also comes with proven dependability, loyalty and responsiveness. As a “Virtual” Assistant, I have to show those attributes to my clients in every project I manage for them. If they email their request, I always acknowledge their request and provide an estimated turn-around time. And since my clients pay for their retainers up front, I provide a detailed time report at the end of each retainer period (as well as a mid-month interim report), which details how the time they purchase is used. In the “virtual” world, it can be a challenge to know who you can trust, but there are ways to provide clients with some clear assurance. Great topic!
I build trust by being authentic and transparent. Estabishing mutually agreed upon guidelines for quality and behavior involves the team in governance and establishes mutual accountability. Emphasizing problem solving and avoiding the blame game also creates a positive team culture. Open communication and conflict management are also key. Most of all I believe and value their skills. I care about them, so they care about the work that needs to be done.
very nice by you