Trust – James Osborn

Trust

Trust is a brilliant thing. Trust people to perform and they are much more likely to knock it out of the park. When you are trusted you see a lot fewer of the bad behaviours that can make your working life tougher than it needs to be.

So building up trust is a super power, and accelerating that build-up really compounds the benefits.

It’s simple, but not always easy, to build up trust when you have the power. When you are the boss, you can just ask people to do something and tell them you trust them to achieve it. The bit that comes next, which can be hard, is that you need to let them go away and do the thing. No backseat driving or looming over the shoulder. Instead, figure out a plan to check in at the start, and stick with it.

Then just keep doing that!

On the flip side, where you don’t have the power, it’s about this fundamental statement. “Do what you said you’d do, when you said you’d do it”.

Both parts are key, one without the other is useless for building trust. Doing less or being late will both erode trust, and can do so quickly. It’s harder to build up trust than it is to lose it.

Again, this is simple to say, but might not be easy to do. You both need to have a strong understanding of the “what” and the “when”, and clear agreement on what these look like.

You need to keep doing it. Start with small things, do what you said you’d do, when you said you’d do it. Do it again. And again.

Consistency is key, a bedrock to the formation of trust.

With trust you’ll do more, you will be happier, your org will be happier and you’ll achieve more!

Follow Through

When you agree on an action, you need to make sure you put in the follow through to be sure it actually happens.

It’s especially important to remember this if responsibility is one of your key strengths. It’s very easy to assume that because you will always do everything you say you will, that everyone else will always hold themselves to that standard.

The follow throughs will be different depending on the person, the actions, the length of time to complete and the importance of completing them. You need to make sure that you balance the need for follow through against the tendency towards micromanagement.

I like to use a model of “trust but verify”. Your default position is that the action will be completed as agreed, but as the person eventually accountable, you will check-in on progress.

If you are going to use a formal check-in model, then agree it up front with the actions. I’ve worked with people who want to improve their public speaking skills, in that sort of long lived objective, I’ve then agreed monthly check-ins, to find out what sort of presentations they’ve been giving, the feedback they’ve had and what they are doing based on it. This formal agreement is super useful to make sure the goal is not forgotten, or people try and leave any activity until right before the final review.

For shorter term follow throughs, they can be more informal. Ask “How is X progressing?”, dig in a little bit more with “What’s left to do?”. By asking what’s left, you get a real view on the final 20%, which is a lot more useful than a brief “all on track” or similar.

If it makes sense, grab a demo or draft view, that makes the progress concrete. Give some warning on this, so it’s not a surprise. That’ll also give the person a chance to get the draft together if they’ve not picked it up yet.

Finally, make sure that your check-in is not left until just before a deadline. Reviewing the day before doesn’t give much chance to make any corrections or complete actions, it’s no fun doing homework on the bus, so avoid that feeling by making sure good progress is made early.

Following through is an important leadership skill, so practice until it’s natural and you’ll really drive the effectiveness of everyone you are working with.