Frances Frei’s TEDTalk about ‘How to build and rebuild trust’ is a must to listen to. She talks about how achieving it falls into three components – authenticity, rigour in logic, empathy – and if any one of those wobbles, then trust is undermined.
She shares her story about going into Uber to see if she can support them rebuild trust from within and how in some parts of the business she’s able to find highly effective fixes in the empathy area, but in other areas the mountain to climb is never ending.
I absolutely love a couple of her quotes which I wanted to share with you as they resonated with me and I’ve continued to ponder them:
“I believe there’s a better version of us around every corner.” How powerful is that and can you imagine if we all challenges ourselves with that day in day out.
“Leaders, your obligation is to set the conditions that make it safe and welcome to be authentic in the workplace, as this will achieve excellence.” No-one should feel they have to be someone or something else at work as with that comes having to spend additional wasted energy being someone else.
“Don’t mute yourself.” Everyone has something worthwhile to say at some point and what a waste if you don’t have the guts to share it.
Food for thought for everyone – do they resonate with you too?
In Patrick Lencioni’s two New York bestselling books, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The Advantage, he says that in order to create high-performing teams and cultures, we need to be the Chief Reminder Officers or CROs. It is our job to continually create clarity and keep reminding people of our purpose, vision, who we serve and what we’re trying to achieve.
Whether you’re a business owner, in an organisation or leading a team, there are three effective strategies to help build trust and connection.
Communicate effectively: You need to communicate consistently and poignantly and be clear on your key messages and call to actions.
Use data and insights: Making use of the data and insights will create far more connected conversations with your teams and customers. When something is backed by actionable insights, it helps to build the confidence and trust in you as a leader.
Focus on who you’re communicating with and when: Ensure that you are strategic in what you communicate, to whom and when. This builds relationships and trust.
Trust, so hard to build and so easy to lose……