I’ve met many leaders who lack self-awareness and don’t trust their employees. They hover endlessly around any given employee and offer “helpful” tips or constantly correct whatever the person is doing. They allow no independence and don’t delegate tasks. I’ve had leaders nonchalantly express in several workshops that they can’t trust their employees to do anything right so they have to do it themselves.
Guess what kind of workplace these leaders create? It’s usually one populated by employees who are flustered, annoyed, dependent, unfulfilled, unmotivated, and who don’t really care about their work. After all, why work hard when your talents and abilities will never be recognized?
Not trusting employees is not about being good or bad, you’ll just get better results if you trust people rather than constraining them. If you don’t trust your employees here are five tips to help you build self-awareness and move in a positive direction.
1. Ask yourself the question, “Do I like it when people trust me?” Most people feel great when their bosses trust them.
2. Take a look at yourself. There is a reason you don’t trust people because there are many leader who actually trust their staff and get excellent results from them. Without mentioning your employees and focusing only on yourself, what is the reason?
3. Provide educational opportunities. If you feel you can’t trust an employee with a given task then provide training that will help them learn the necessary skills. Extra credit if you allow someone else other than you do the training.
4. Do you feel out of control when your employees make their own decisions? This is a very normal feeling to have and it can be shifted by simply giving people the ability to work independently.
5. Change your focus. If all you think about is that people are untrustworthy then that’s the kind of workplace you’ll create. Look for ways to focus on how you can trust your employees more every day.
Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “Trust is earned,” which too often allows leaders who lack self-awareness set arbitrary and constantly changing standards that nobody can ever meet. Granted, there are going to be employees that you can’t trust because you caught them stealing but, for everyone else, they’re just there to try to do a good job if you’ll let them. You decide whether you give them the benefit of the doubt or keep them stuffed in a box.
What will you do to develop self-awareness and trust your employees more?
Cheers,
Guy