Truth and Trust

When thinking of profitable organisations, one can imagine a basket containing different kinds of fruits – apples, bananas, grapes, oranges etc. What makes the basket attractive to any healthy eater is not necessarily the size of the basket but its content. To smoothie lovers, such a basket might as well be the best gift they receive on a good day.

The same applies to healthy and profitable organisations and teams. For organisation or team health to be achieved and maintained, different ‘fruits’ would have to be placed in the basket. From a clear mission and vision, to well-thought out strategies, everything has to be in the basket. Fruit lovers also know that the fruit have to look ripe on the outside as well be good on the inside. Only then can each fruit be trusted to make the best of smoothies and contribute to the health of the eater. Same goes for organisations. It’s not enough to be a brand everyone talks about on the outside, your employees –who are your brand ambassadors, must trust you on the inside too. When companies lament about the absence of engaged employees (especially when they have put all the other necessary strategies in place),a lot of the time, the problem can be traced to a lack of trust-employees not trusting leadership across board. And this is a stumbling block to organisational health. Business leaders who inspire trust reapemployee engagement, employee ownership thinking, innovation, loyalty, and profits, while mistrust fosters suspicion, frustration, low productivity, disengagement, high staff turnover, losttransactions, and sales. Trust affects a leader’s impact and the company’s bottom line. Most leaders make the mistake to think that others trust them simply because of their title. Trust is not automatic and definitely does not come with the title on your business card but must be earned over time. One single factor that helps build trust is the virtue of being truthful. You can’t separate both – truth and trust.

As it is popularly said, honesty is the best policy and actually giving honest feedback, being truthful about the situation of the company and the reason why decisions are made are key to your people trusting you. If you are able to be truthful at your own expense, you show that your relationship with your employees and/or customers is important and that their well-being is imperative to you.  As the management czar, Jack Welch said “You’ve got to get truth in your company…. You’ll only get that if people trust you, if you’ve been authentic, if they know you have their back.” Bottom line: When you are truthful, people will trust you. When people trust you, they will be truthful to you. It’s a very interesting cycle necessary for organisational or team health.

Ngozi Adebiyi is the Lead Consultant at OutsideIn HR. Our focus is practical interventions that address the challenges of businesses today. We specialise in HR Business Partnering, Engagement & Retention with the goal of “Revolutionising HR in Nigeria”. Ngozi@outsideinHRng.com