Marketing Tips Trust is key to effective communication in the office
Question: How important is trust in the workplace? Answer: Trust is a critical ingredient to organizational success. Think about it: When you don’t trust someone, how honest is your communication going Steve Adubato to be? When you don’t trust someone, aren’t you likely to hold back important information for fear that it might be disclosed to someone else? Without trust, you don’t take risks; and when you don’t take risks in business, rarely, if ever, will you solve complex problems. Question: What is the link between trust and communication? Answer: The connection between communication and trust is undeniable. Many employees don’t trust their managers to do the right thing, no matter what the manager says in public. That’s often because the manager’s actions don’t match his or her words. But that’s just one of the reasons why leaders aren’t trusted by their people. Sometimes, a leader will play favorites. It’s OK not to treat your people the same, because they are all different, but it is not acceptable to treat them unfairly. Simply put, some managers go out of their way to give certain people a difficult time, while giving others who make the same mistakes a pass. When employees see this, they don’t trust the leader to do the right thing; therefore, morale suffers, which in turn hurts productivity and communication. Question: What else can cause mistrust in an organization? Answer: One issue is a misunderstanding that goes unresolved. When we assume certain motives on the part of someone without confirming that we are right, we are likely to lose trust in that person, which adversely affects our communication. Also, in these same situations, if we start pointing fingers and assigning blame, trust will quickly be eroded. If employees believe that key decision-makers are more concerned about blaming people as opposed to solving problems, they’ll make sure they don’t get blamed — but again,...