By Julie Ann Bittner President / CEO TRICOM

The first week in August, I had the privilege to attend the Global Leadership Summit (GLS) for the fourth consecutive year. The GLS is a two-day summit packed with amazing well-known authors, business owners, CEOs of highly recognized companies, professors, and this year the 66^th Secretary of State, Secretary Condoleezza Rice. TRICOM was excited to register six staff members to attend the Global Leadership Summit, because as the GLS says, “Everyone Wins When the Leader Gets Better!”

Today more than ever, leadership matters! Every one of us leads. We lead at work, in our homes, in our communities, and in schools. We can either build others up or break them down. Lead from where you are, show up, and keep leading…. Even if you are experiencing difficult times, keep leading. 

A common theme of this year’s summit focused on Trust. Opening speaker Craig Groeschel explained how the future of leadership is Trust. Craig is globally recognized as a leader of leaders. According to his website, www.craiggroeschel.com, Craig speaks frequently at leadership events and conferences worldwide. In addition to writing and speaking extensively on leadership principles and strategies, he serves as champion for the Global Leadership Summit, and hosts the top-ranking Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast. Glassdoor has also named him in the top 10 CEOs in the U.S. (small and midsize companies) and named Life.Church the #1 Place to Work under his leadership. Traveling the world on behalf of the Global Leadership Summit, he advocates for building leaders in every sector of society. I found his take on Trust fascinating and wanted to share some of Craig’s key takeaways. 

Global communications firm, Edelman, has established Edelman’s Trust Barometer, an annual trust and credibility survey. For over 20 years they have studied the influence of trust across society and have discovered that more than half the population will not trust someone or something until they see evidence. If this is the case, this will create tremendous problems with moving people from one place to another. Today, distrust is people’s default emotion. One of the biggest challenges in a business environment is that if your staff doesn’t trust you, they won’t follow you.

Craig asserts that there are three qualities necessary to earn trust: transparency, empathy, and consistency. The combination of these three qualities together builds trust.

Transparency
Transparency means you have a truth to share. You must be transparent both professionally and personally. The moment you lead defensively is the moment you lose everything. One of the really thought-provoking comments Craig made about transparency is that people are impressed by your strength, but they connect with who you are — with your weaknesses.

When you lead with Transparency, teams get closer, you can solve problems faster, and trust grows stronger.

Do you find yourself thinking, “Why don’t they think like I think?” Your team won’t think like you think because they don’t see what you see. If they don’t see what you see, they won’t know what you know. If they don’t know what you know, they can’t think like you think. So, if you help them to know what you know, they can think like you think. Then they can care like you care. Teams get closer and solve problems faster and trust grows more quickly. 

There are several ways you can foster transparency in your workplace. One is to keep your team updated about changes and expectations. Also make sure you’re asking questions, as well as providing feedback (both positive and constructive criticism).

Be open with not only what you’re doing within the organization, but also why you’re doing it. Revealing the “why” about decisions being made also helps give your team additional insight into how decision making occurs. Share things you’ve learned, as well as successes and failures. This also means providing and maintaining an open means of communication, whether it’s email, chat software, or other avenues. If you’re openly communicating with your team, they’ll be more open to communicating with you, which increases transparency (and trust) all around.

For the last couple years, individual TRICOM team members involved in many different roles within our company have opened up by sharing their “Why Story.” It’s been so insightful to learn what drives our team members to succeed, to help our clients, and to work toward our common goal. It’s brought our team closer since we’ve each had the privilege to learn more about one another in personal, meaningful ways. 

Empathy
Empathy means having a heart to care. Your team will never care about your mission if you don’t care about your team. You can achieve this by talking less and listening more. Ask questions like:

• What are you most excited about in this season?
• What would you love for me to know about you that I’ve never asked?
• If I could do one thing to make your life better, what would that be?

Be prepared to think about their answers and respond appropriately where possible. Don’t just care about what they do, care about who they are! Help them to see that “I notice you, and you matter!” Theodore Roosevelt says it best, “People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

There are several ways to do this within your organization. You can involve employees in decision-making processes. Get their opinions. Understand how changes may impact their daily activities and offer ways to ease their worries about changes that impact them. Acknowledging their input and perspective goes a long way in creating empathy.

Another way to support empathy in the workplace is to be supportive of their interests. For example, at TRICOM, we have a strong emphasis on giving back to our community. We often look for different philanthropic opportunities based on our employees’ advice and interests and incorporate those into our efforts, such as our Season of Giving over the holiday season. Showing that you care about what they care about makes a difference.

Part of being empathic is being authentic (which also relates back to transparency). Also, be openly grateful — express your gratitude for your employees and their efforts. Show gratitude for actions both big and small in an effort to create a positive environment where employees appreciate and support one another.

Another way to foster empathy in the workplace is to check in with your employees. Ask how they’re doing on a particular project or if they need any additional help or resources. Listen to their feedback, ask if they have questions. Open communication not only builds transparency, but empathy, as well.

Consistency
Be consistent with your expectations. Be clear with what you expect. Reward it when you see it. Correct it when you don’t.

When it comes to building trust, it’s not what you do occasionally, it’s what you do consistently. Consistency creates emotional safety, encourages organizational clarity, and has an exponential impact.

To be consistent, it’s critical to have written processes and procedures that are easily accessible, so you have a standard and guide for everyone to follow. You can then evaluate performances against those policies and standards in a way that’s consistent. It’s also important that everyone, including you, are expected to follow these policies. When employees see that policies are for everyone, it builds trust within the organization.

Reward employees for the consistency of their efforts, service, or achievements. By the same token, recognize if an employee is struggling to meet these standards and work with them to form an action plan for improvement. Be clear about expectations and deadlines. Follow up with them to see what you can do to help them succeed.

Consistency also means following through on your commitments. This is especially important as an owner or manager. Do what you say you will do within the timeframe you had indicated. When your employees know they can count on you, it continues to build trust.

Trust is a vital component of your organization’s culture. If your employees don’t trust you, they will not follow you, and their trust will continue to erode. It can cause a negative feedback loop with detrimental results.

In closing, Craig cautioned us, “to earn trust you must give trust.” Additionally, “You may be disappointed if you trust too much, but you will always limit your leadership if you don’t trust enough.” What of the three factors, Transparency, Empathy, or Consistency, do you need to work on? How can you incorporate your employees’ ideas and perspectives into strengthening these values within your workplace?

When trust builds within your workplace, it results in happier employees, increased productivity and, ultimately, better overall results for your company and customers.

For more information about the Global Leadership Summit, visit register.globalleadership.org. To learn more about Craig Groeschel Leadership visit www.Life.Church/leadership