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Leaders, executives, managers and supervisors, I have some excellent news for you. When trust in management exists, job satisfaction goes way up!
In late March, CNN's Moneyline (1) published an interview with two economists from the University of British Columbia, John F. Helliwell and Haifang Huang, who recently published a study (2). They determined trust in management as the top consideration in determining an employee's job satisfaction. They found that a 10 percent increase in the perceived level of trust of management roughly equated to the level of satisfaction the employee would receive from a 36 percent increase in pay. Extrapolating the concept to productivity, in essence a manager can achieve greater employee productivity and employee satisfaction without raising employment costs. Conversely, a paltry salary raise won't do much to increase productivity but will negatively affect shrinking budgets. With more and more pressure on managers to improve the bottom line, building trust can pay huge dividends to the employees, the manager and the company.
Imagine the productivity potential when managers at every level have very satisfied employees. People would come into the office with a good attitude and an inherent motivation to excel. New ideas would be considered for possible implementation without an employee's fear of retribution. Team members would enthusiastically look forward to working together to achieve goals for the entire group.
Yet, why is it so challenging for management to garner the trust of their employees? The answers to the following questions are really quite simple but difficult to admit. Could it be management's inconsistencies in their words versus their actions? Could it be confidentialities that they have broken? Could it be a lack of a manager's communication to their teams about what is going on in the organizational hierarchy? Could it be a lack of support when needed most, i.e. not providing the teams with the tools they need to do their job, not making resources available to them to complete a proposal, not making themselves accessible to help and escalate an issue on the employee's behalf? A "yes" answer to any one of these situations that employees experience would preclude them from trusting their management.
So how can managers turn things around to create an environment of trust? This is where coaching comes in.
A coach assesses the situation by observing the group with an unbiased attitude, interviewing the team members with probing questions and listening with open ears to get an understanding of what lies beneath the surface. The coach collects data, summarizes it, and presents conclusions and recommendations to the organization's leadership. As a neutral third party, the coach collaborates with managers to assist them in employing changes to positively impact their organizations. Then the coach and managers jointly set goals and timeframes to begin the coaching process. Together they set "spot check" intervals for monitoring progress and for making any tweaks along the way.
In closing, as you think about the team you lead, ask yourself how satisfied you think they are based on their level of trust in you. If you think their level of trust in you is good, chances are your team is performing well, and you are setting a very good example for your peers. However, if you think their level of trust in you is not so good, bringing in a coach to examine what is going on in the organization would be beneficial.
Trust is a quality earned over time, and when it is present in an organization, it will provide the company with a productivity advantage over its competitors.
Until next month,
Laura Morales
(1) copyright http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/29/commentary/everyday/sahadi/index.htm?cnn=yes
(2) copyright http://www.econ.ubc.ca/helliwell//papers/NBERw11759.pdf | 
