But what exactly does this word mean? A quick check in the dictionary and I find 12 definitions for the word. Eight for the noun and four for the verb. And that makes sense. Trust is an old word. It comes to us from ancient languages and over the years has taken on more and different meanings.
Originally, its roots are from the Porto-Germanic language and the word ‘traustam’ meaning ‘comfort, consolation, protection support’. By the 12th century trust came to mean ‘a ‘reliance on the veracity, integrity or other virtues or sound principles of someone or something; religious faith’.
By the 15th century, ‘trust’ took on a legal meaning — ‘the obligation of someone in a responsible position’ and as time went on, the formation of ‘trusts’ in the 19th century: businesses organised to reduce competition, or an organisation for the control of several corporations or assets under one direction and managed by its trustees.
I’m more interested today in the personal aspect of trust. The trust you have in yourself. The trust others invest in you. The trust you hold in your team and they hold in one another. The trust your organisation has in its industry or marketplace.
Trust is a key leadership quality. It’s built on a foundation of integrity and intent. When trust is high in an organisation, there is high performance, ease and flow. When trust is low, there is a penalty to pay. Results are of inferior quality, take longer and cost more. That’s why trust is so important at all levels in an organisation, and beyond.
It begins at the personal level. The trust others place in you is dependent on both your character and your competence. You are trusted for your integrity and your intent. For the talents, experience and expertise you bring to your work. For the promises you keep. For the results you consistently deliver. Do this well and you build your credibility and trustworthiness.
First and foremost then, you know your values — what most matters to you — and live them. You know, own and communicate your value — the unique contribution that you and only you bring to your organisation. Others then know what they can expect of you.
That consistent behaviour leads to trust in your relationships. Among colleagues, with your leadership team, and importantly, with your team. If you’ve inherited a poorly performing team, as one of my clients did a few years ago, chances are trust is lacking. She and I worked together to restore the trust in her team. She began by hosting a team meeting at which they agreed 4 values they felt were important to the health and performance of the team.
This of course, is not enough. Values are abstract things; everyone has their own, usually slightly different understanding of what a particular value means. (Like ‘trust’: there are 12 meanings for the word in the dictionary.) This is why it’s so important to come to a common understanding of what each team value means, and even more important to agree the behaviours aligned with that value those that are not.
And agree a common direction so that everyone knows what they are working towards. Have them know and own their value — the talents, experience and expertise they bring to their work and how best they can contribute that value to the team and its direction and goals.
From the team to multiple teams to the trust the organisation has in its industry or marketplace. Again integrity — behaving according to its values and the values the marketplace has of it — is essential if an organisation is to be trusted. And if not, that organisation is likely to fail. Take Enron, Lehman Brothers, the water utilities here in the UK. All behaving with a lack of integrity, senior leaders and shareholders lining their pockets, financial irregularities.… Such organisations do not deserve our trust. And pay the ultimate price.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.