2015 Leadership Tip

If feedback shows lack of trust is an issue, look to your accountability measures. You will discover excuses and blaming will diminish desired results. Where does human performance lack commitment, competence, and follow-through? Fill those gaps with affirmative visions and steps for success.

Accountability

Recently, several organizations have had difficulty with their management and employees. As I observed a church staff, a charter school administration, and new corporate middle managers, I discover that accountability is a huge issue for all of them. Some employees had authority to coincide with their responsibility. They had an easier time acheiving accountability than those who had responsibility and little to no authority in crazy-making, no-win situations. My observations led me to understand that accountability issues disguise trust and truth issues, and without trust and truth, the workplace beomes non-nurturing at the best and hostile at the worst. Teamwork, productivity, performance, and morale become casualties of a workplace where accountability is overlooked or undermined. Gossip, lying, and blame fuel distrust and negativity. In the church scenario, lies and unfounded accusations caused the pastor's dismissal by misled lay leaders. In the charter school scenario, the director was made a scapegoat for the executive director's poor judgment and the board of directors' ineptitude. In the corporate scenario, the middle managers continue to flounder in unclear expectations and inadequate support.

If negativity, distrust, and poor achievement show up in your organization, look to your systems for accountability or the lack of it. Personal responsibility, positional authority, and professional accountability measure the health of an organization. How healthy is yours?

Trust Drives the Bottom Line

The health of an organization's bottom line correlates to the amount of trust displayed in its interconnected relationships. A colleague says "Trust begins and ends with the truth." Being truthful, caring, and skillful play significant roles in creating a trustworthy interaction. William Easum, an organization development consultant, says that "quantum" businesses contain trust as a major characteristic of their conduct at all levels. Trust begins with the leader of the organization and permeates into all levels of employee ranks, teams and divisions, and outward to vendors, suppliers, external customers, and the general public. Within such an environment, people can learn from mistakes and take appropriate risks to create innovation in processes, products, and services.

Years ago the Tylenol corporation gained the trust of the public when it apologized in the media for deaths associated with its products. Tylenol removed all its products from shelves and went on to develop tamper-proof containers. Those gestures demonstrated a commitment to the health and safety of their customers. To this day, the Tylenol company remains financially viable with trusted products and a large market share.

Sprint has had a harder time gaining the trust of the public. As a front leader in telecommunications, Sprint could have nurtured a loyal clientele with excellent customer service. It chose instead to go after contracts. As contracts expired, customers left Sprint for more responsive cell phone carriers. Sprint's bottom line has fluxuated like a flag in a hurricane, and its workforce never knows when the next storm will hit and they'll be dismissed again. Customer service can solidify trust or it can cancel it.

Best-Buy has learned a similar trust lesson. Its managers confessed to a consultant a few years back that they diffeentiated themselves by the best price for electronic products and accessories; they did not care about the sale after the product left the store, unless the customer purchased an extended waranty. Now Best-Buy has the Geek Squad to serve its customers--a big shift in thinking.

Internal customer service is often seen as teambuilding. Teams with little or no trust are really groups of individuals working under the same roof or though a virtual system. Without trust, employees do work for benefits and paychecks only. They are susceptible to better benefits and bigger paychecks elsewhere. Talent and skill retention become difficult to maintain and will impact performanace and productivity--both of which will affect the bottom line within time.

Micro-management and broken triangles are two relationship saboteurs that destroy trust. A competent employee who has to have each step of a task challenged or approved will begin looking for a less-hassled or non-hostile environment in which to work. An employee who constantly has to watch his or her back so that others are not talking behind his or her back will begin to feel alienated and disliked, as employees are encouraged, and perhaps rewarded, for not communicating directly with one another. Distrust will spread like black mold in that kind of environment. The resulting turnover will show itself in the bottom line.

Trust or distrust can be corporate currency. What is encouraged and rewarded will blossom or fester, respectively. Finding and telling the truth, being responsible, and being accountable build trustworthiness. Choose trust in cultivating your business relationships; it pays off in the long run.