One of the best ways for a CEO, president, business owner or leader to earn employee mistrust is to continually make any of the following three blunders:<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t tell you how often I have personally observed people in leadership positions making these mistakes. They may think they\u2019re protecting themselves, but all they\u2019re doing is digging a deeper ditch, one that\u2019s all the more difficult to crawl out of. They erode the trust people have in them.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s take a look at each one of these blunders and see what a leader can do to recover from them, so trust can be rebuilt \u2014 and to keep from making them in the future.<\/p>\n
Many times, the person making a mistake doesn\u2019t realize it. Consider a Major League Baseball umpire who misses a call. Although he may not know he missed it, the 30,000 fans in the stadium do, not to mention the millions of others watching on TV. When the bad call is finally confirmed on the huge scoreboard, it\u2019s as clear as day for everyone to see.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, MLB now allows league officials to review instant replays to check the accuracy of questioned calls. What about your company or organization? Do you have a system for reversing bad choices or mistakes you or your leadership team have committed? If you don\u2019t, you may want to institute such a system. When you make a mistake and don\u2019t admit it, and don\u2019t take steps to correct it, you\u2019re just building a case for mistrust.<\/p>\n
When someone we know makes a blatant error but refuses to acknowledge it, we start to mistrust that person. We think, \u201cIf they can\u2019t speak the truth in this situation, how can they be trusted to speak the truth in other, similar situations?\u201d<\/p>\n
The solution is a simple one. As Dale Carnegie once said, \u201cIf you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.\u201d You can\u2019t go wrong following his recommendation. And let\u2019s not gloss over the \u201cquickly\u201d part, that we should not only admit our mistake, but do it as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the less it means when you finally acknowledge it.<\/p>\n
In their article in Forbes<\/em> magazine entitled, \u201cCreative Leadership Humility and Being Wrong,\u201d authors Doug Guthrie and Sudhir Venkatesh write about the positive power in admitting and apologizing for one\u2019s mistakes. \u201cWe are frequently taught that leaders, especially aspiring leaders, should hide weaknesses and mistakes. This view is flawed.\u201d Guthrie and Venkatesh agree that it is not only good to admit you are wrong when you are, but it can also be a powerful tool for leaders, actually increasing their legitimacy. This practice can help build a culture that increases solidarity, innovation, openness to change and many other positive features of organizational life.<\/p>\n Some time ago, I observed a retail department head who had the tendency to be blunt, insensitive and unresponsive when dealing with employee requests.<\/p>\n On one occasion, he stepped over the line by not responding to an employee\u2019s request for help in dealing with a particular customer. It was an obvious blunder, and the department head should have known it and admitted it. Instead, his attitude was, \u201cI\u2019m too busy and important to deal with customers.\u201d<\/p>\n To make matters worse, everyone he worked with knew he\u2019d blown it. Once the blunder was brought to his attention, do you think this supervisor apologized for his mistake? Not a chance. As a result, his entire team silently slashed a few more points off his leadership score.<\/p>\n What should he have done? First, he should have admitted to himself, then to others, that he\u2019d made a mistake. He would have had to recognize that it was going to take courage and a good deal of humility to apologize to the team member involved. Then, the next time he made a mistake, and every time thereafter, he\u2019d need to be prompt in acknowledging it and apologizing for it. If he was consistent about doing that, after a while, word would get around and help rebuild trust in him as a leader with integrity.<\/p>\n Sometimes leaders mistake a request for more information or clarification of a message as a sign of weakness in the person requesting the information, especially when it\u2019s about something that involves accountability. They think that the person is only asking the question out of a lack of courage to take action. Sometimes that might be the case, but ultimately, whose responsibility is it to make sure that a subordinate has the training and confidence to make decisions and take necessary actions? That person\u2019s superior, that\u2019s who.<\/p>\n When a leader doesn\u2019t communicate promptly and consistently, it builds distrust. Let\u2019s take a look at why this happens. First, the person requesting information usually does so for a good reason. This person needs to make a decision and believes the leader has the necessary information to help with that decision. If the leader withholds that information, it causes people to ask \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n Some leaders will use the \u201cI\u2019m too busy\u201d excuse. When business owners, CEOs or presidents tell me they don\u2019t have enough time to answer requests for information, I respond, \u201cYou don\u2019t have enough time not to answer.\u201d<\/p>\n Think about it \u2014 a delayed or incorrect decision by one of your employees can cost your company time, money, the reworking of an order, hurt feelings and, worst of all, lost clients. If you don\u2019t think you have enough time to answer employee requests, I recommend you reconsider.<\/p>\n Sometimes a leader doesn\u2019t know the answer. What then? \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d is not an acceptable answer. A better answer includes any of the following responses:<\/p>\n In summary, to stop making trust-building blunders, and to build your team\u2019s belief in you, I strongly recommend doing the following:<\/p>\n When you are able to employ these three tools, you\u2019ll build confidence in you and bolster your reputation as a trustworthy human being who isn\u2019t afraid to be real.<\/p>\n Admitting when you are wrong is not a sign of weakness; it is a sign of strength that will earn you respect from your employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":2781,"parent":0,"template":"","columns-categories":[46],"main-categories":[50],"class_list":["post-2780","columns","type-columns","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","columns-categories-business-to-business","main-categories-business-development"],"yoast_head":"\nBlunder #3: Not answering an employee\u2019s request for clarification or more information.<\/h2>\n
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This column originally appeared in Irrigation & Green Industry magazine.<\/em><\/h6>\n
Tom Borg<\/strong><\/a> is a team performance and customer experience expert who works with green industry organizations and their leadership teams to help them connect, communicate and work together better without all the drama through his consulting, training, coaching, leadership instruments and job benchmarking tools. To ask him a question, please call 734.404.5909, email tom@tomborg.com<\/a> or visit his website at www.tomborgconsulting.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"