Part 1 of 2 - Does your team trust you?

Only 2 out of 10 employees strongly agree with this statement: “I trust the leadership in the organization.”

In 2021, 56% of people feared that leaders deliberately misled them. Today, that number stands at 68%.

Fear that leaders lie to us is at an all-time high. Trust in leadership is at an all-time low.

(Spoiler alert: Since you’re responsible for leading others, your employees also view you as part of leadership.)

I’ll give it to you straight. Your employees don’t care how smart you are, what school you went to, or your job title. None of it matters… if they don’t trust you.

Which is why building (and rebuilding) trust is the first and most important step in you becoming an elite leader.

Now you might be thinking, "My team knows me Ali. They trust me!"

I get it. I used to think just like you.

But here's where many of us, myself included, get it wrong.

We “assume” our teams trust us to lead them just because we were chosen to lead them. Instead of actively earning our team’s trust, We take their trust for granted. Rookie mistake!

Starting today, I want you to think of trust as your bank account. Every single interaction you have with your team is either a deposit or a withdrawal from your account.

Example of deposits:

• Consistency in words and actions
• Delivering results
• Apologizing after a mistake
• Sharing honest feedback
• Having good judgment
• Being dependable
    

Examples of withdrawals:

• Saying one thing. Doing another
• Kissing up. Kicking down
• Withholding information
• Breaking promises
• Being unreliable

Most managers don’t lose trust in one big moment, it slowly drains away through small withdrawals over time.

In tomorrow’s email, I’ll share breakthrough research from Harvard that reveals the three types of deposits you need to keep a positive balance and become the kind of leader people actually trust.

Keep leading.

Ali

PS: I'm curious. Have you ever worked for a leader you didn’t trust? What did they do (or fail to do) that made you feel that way? Hit reply and let me know. I read every response.