Advent has started, which means the All Things IC countdown to Christmas is back.
Every day between now and 25 December you have a second chance to read guest articles I’ve featured throughout 2016.
My thanks as ever to all the communicators who have contributed to my site and shared their stories.
First up is 10 tips for IC pros to build trust in your leaders.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be covering topics including using Facebook at Work (Workplace), comms skills gaps, strategic internal comms, how to communicate company purpose and much more.
If you’re planning Christmas comms, don’t forget to see my free Christmas Comms Guide.
10 tips for IC pros to build trust in your leadership team.
How can you build trust in your leadership team?
Is it your role or theirs to do so? That’s a whole other blog post…
Today I’ve got 10 tips to share with you thanks to a guest post written by Nick Terry, MD at Top Banana. They are leadership driven events specialists here in the UK and have been researching this topic for some time.
Last year Top Banana published a report in collaboration with Westminster Business School, University of Westminster and the Institute of Internal Communication.
It highlighted the importance of trust within an organisation and particularly trust in the leadership team at the top of the tree.
I’ll hand you over to Nick…
Further reading: Report reveals leaders critical to repair broken trust. (Published February 2015).
Further reading: Why 2016 is the year CEOs need to trust employees. (Published January 2016).
Higher levels of trust lead to higher individual, team and company performance. It means more people working together, better problem solving, a more positive work climate and higher employee engagement.
But how can internal communicators work to build employee trust inside their organisations?
As a follow-up to the report we launched last year, a group of global business leaders, senior in-house communicators and independent experts were asked about trust and the actions they felt were key to building and sustaining trust in their leadership team.
From all of this insight, here’s our top ten tips for IC professionals to build trust in your leadership team and business.
1. Benchmark trust and measure progress
Become a champion for establishing a formal system of trust measurement in your organisation. An annual survey that measures and benchmarks trust is one method, but there’s no universal way of doing this, so dedicate the time to get it right in your company.
2. Be consistent.
If predictability is one of the four pillars of trust[1], then consistency is the key to ensuring it. We trust what we know, and what we expect. Internal communicators should challenge and counsel business leaders to communicate consistently, for example, always being open and honest (not just when it suits).
3. Encourage feedback – and listen to it
Leaders need feedback loops to know if there are real (or perceived) issues in their business. Developing the means for employees’ voices to be heard and creating open dialogue with employees ensures there is effective two-way communication between the leaders and all other employees.
If employees see their views are being listened to, as well as acted upon, they are also far more likely to accept the direction in which the company is travelling so it’s win-win!
4. Keep colleagues informed
Without regular and consistent information, employees will lose focus – and trust. Whether you are communicating a strategy, launching a new product internally or driving behavioural change, leaders need to communicate their intentions clearly and consistently.
Communicating something once will not keep employees informed and engaged.
5. Communicate face to face
In a world where wide-spread communication is at the touch of a button, never forget that research proves again and again that employees dislike the overuse of electronic communication and that face-to-face is more engaging, authentic and trustworthy.
Face-to-face communication is one of the most important initiatives any organisation can introduce to build trust. Focus on creating continuous opportunities for your business leaders to be seen – both formally (e.g. roadshows and events) and informally (e.g. walking the floors).
6. Dare to be different
As Einstein said, ‘We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.’
If IC professionals can earn the trust of senior leaders to challenge them on their communication approach, styles and preferences and encourage them to think differently, the results can be game changing.
7. Love your line managers
Because trust is transitive, line managers are often described as the miracle in the middle, the glue that binds the leadership team to everyone else. Communicate with them in a bespoke way, get them together, work collaboratively with them. They are a critical component to building wider organisational trust.
8. Apply context
Every organisation’s culture is different. Learn and understand what creates and destroys trust in your organisation. Promote the communication tools and practices that build trust. Challenge those that don’t.
9. Be committed
Talk is cheap – leaders need to be bold in making commitments to employees. Black and white, solid commitments.
They also, critically, need to act on the commitments they make, with ongoing communication about progress.
10. Be a trusted advisor
Work hard to become a trusted advisor to your business leaders and managers – you need their trust so that you can convince them they need to earn employees’ trust. Start small, perhaps with regional/ divisional managers and directors to gain confidence and advocates along the way.
Find out more
You can download both the ‘Building Trust: Ten initiatives to help build trust – from trusted leaders in successful businesses’ and ‘Leadership, Trust and Communication: Building Trust in Companies Through Effective Leadership Communication’ reports from Top Banana’s website.
[1] Mayer, et al., 1995, Dietz and Den Hartog, 2006
Post author: Nick Terry.
Thank you Nick.
Rachel.
First published on the All Things IC blog 2 February 2016. Republished December 2016.
Post author: Rachel Miller.
