Secrets For Women: Tips on Building Trust

WOW Leaders know the value of trust—after all, it’s not that easy to find.  For women in the business world it is imperative to be trustworthy and to trust others deserving your trust.

"Trust is the most valuable commodity in the workplace." - David K. Williams in Forbes

Trust must be earned and proven over time, and even then, it’s often hard to fully believe in it—especially for those who’ve been burned in the past. But to optimize performance, increase motivation, and foster the best working relationships, there needs to be trust at both ends of the leadership picture. Bosses need to trust their employees, and even more importantly, workers need to trust in their leaders. They need to believe in what they’re doing and who is leading them to do it.

Integrity and honesty are the backbone of a WOW leader.
Always be trustworthy and above reproach,
because once someone no longer trusts you,
they will no longer be able to follow you. - Sheri Staak

Sadly, however, statistics from HRMorning.com show that only 48 percent of people in today’s workforce admit to trusting the leaders of their company. Even more telling is that 28 percent say they flat-out do NOT trust their company’s leadership. This lack of trust inevitably causes a higher turnover rate, since half of those employees are likely to leave to find another company with leaders they do trust. Trust then comes at a cost—a quantifiable price that should never be ignored.

According to a 2010 white paper by The Ken Blanchard Companies, "Fifty-nine percent of individuals indicated they had left an organization due to trust issues citing lack of communication and dishonesty as key contributing factors."  Trust is of enormous value to any business and any group or team. 

While research on trust in business with women vs. men is rather sparse there are a few things to consider. Damon Young, Co-founder and editor-in-chief, VSB Magazine puts forward an argument that we trust men before we trust women. He recently wrote, "Trust. Well, the lack thereof. Generally speaking, we (men) do not believe things when they're told to us by women. Well, women other than our mothers or teachers or any other woman who happens to be an established authority figure. Do we think women are pathological liars? No. But, does it generally take longer for us to believe something if a woman tells it to us than it would if a man told us the exact same thing? Definitely!"

Damon Young uses a variety of examples to back up his claim.  Perhaps the strongest being the fact that it took dozens of women speaking out about Bill Cosby before anyone listened.

"...women understand how important trust is, are prepared to do what it takes to build that trust, and are far more careful to ensure it isn’t broken." - By Vanessa Hall “The Trust Lady” and author of The Truth About Trust in Business

Steven Covey said, “Most people don’t know how to think about organizational and societal consequences of low trust because they don’t know how to quantify or measure the cost of such a so- called ‘soft’ factor as trust.” WOW leaders, however, know the value of trust. They know that by investing in trust-building on a daily basis, employee satisfaction will increase. And that, in turn, helps companies retain their top talent.

In my book, "Tune In to WOW Leadership" I explain the importance of trust in being a WOW leader.  Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, has gone so far as to say that trust and truth are the two most important assets in a leader.  For us female leaders, trust (and truth) are even more important than for our male counterparts. Face it, we are expected to perform at a higher standard as women. Be it good or bad, it appears to be reality at this time.

Johanna Harris in her LinkedIn post "Why Some Men Don't Trust Women in the Workplace", states, "The breakdown of trust (Between men and women) is especially common when the male is a manager and the female is his subordinate. Burdened by stereotypes, myths and other hidden assumptions about female employees, he doesn’t trust her to get the job done."

In many ways,  it appears that women are starting from behind in business and have to work even harder to build and gain trust.  We are not going to change those that don't want to change and our time as female leaders is better spent focusing on gaining trust, building trust, and trusting those that deserve our trust.  Marshal Goldsmith, in his recent LinkedIn post wrote, "Your time is very limited. The time you waste trying to change people who do not care is time stolen from people who do want to change."

Ladies, listen up, we aren't going to change the world and we aren't going to change those male leaders who don't want to change or don't even see that they have a bias against women.  Remember the line from the popular movie Frozen, "Let it go!".

In the December 2010 Journal of Language and Social Psychology, Marilyn Boltz, a professor of psychology at Haverford College, puts forward her finding that women lie less than men.  I for one tend to believe Boltz, however, I'm a female, when she says,  “We found that people perceive women to lie less than men."

Let's focus on that which we can change and that which will make an impact in our future.

Leadership Legos:  Building Blocks of Trust

Trust is a two-way street that must be built up and secured, brick by brick. Only by being your authentic self, opening yourself up to the opinions of others, and being consistently truthful can you be considered trustworthy. And only those who do the same will earn your trust. As a WOW leader, use these three “C-Blocks” to help build, develop, and maintain an atmosphere of mutual respect, loyalty, and trust in the workplace.

  Communication. Communication is the cornerstone of any trusting relationship. Sharing your vision, ideas, and strategy provides others with a clearer image of their own future. In addition, listening to the needs, opinions, and concerns of your staff demonstrates your trust in them. By keeping everyone in the loop and consulting with them on important decisions and policies, you show you trust them as much as you want them to trust you. Reciprocal feedback and input in a non-hostile environment is the perfect breeding ground for trust—and ultimately, success.

  Common Values. It’s difficult to trust in those who don’t share your same core values. Most of us tend to surround ourselves with those who share the same fundamental beliefs and are keyed in to the same general goals and ideas as our own. For example, a vegetarian or vegan would be less apt to work in a meat processing organization. If they did, their ideas would collide like oil and water and instead of mixing, would repel each other. For trust to be established and maintained, a baseline commonality of shared values is a must.

  Consistency. It takes time, effort, and above all, consistency to build trust. Once trust is lost, it’s difficult to build back up again. Consistently following through, taking responsibility, and being honest and direct makes you credible and respected as a leader and a person. When you can be counted on to be fair, level-headed, and transparent in your leadership, you’ll be trusted, not feared. Only then will you elicit the best from those you lead.

WOW leaders know that trust is invaluable within a team. As a female in the business world there is even a greater need to be trustworthy and to put trust in others. Without trust, the very foundation of the company is as shaky as a Lego tower on a shag carpet.

Build your team on a solid, sturdy platform of mutual trust and there’ll be no limit to what you can achieve together!

Here is a video I produced on the topic of Earning a Team's Trust.  It will help you find comfort in knowing how to build trust with your team.

 About The Author: Sheri Staak

More on Sheri Staak here at LinkedIn

While Sheri Staak is best known for leading, motivating, and directing large pharmaceutical sales teams, her passion is to help and mentor those on her team and in the world become WOW Leaders and WOW Individuals.

Her desire is to help both the established leader and the neophyte leader develop WOW Leadership skills and become financially secure. 

What are your thoughts on the topic of trust?  Do you think it is harder or easier for females to gain trust in the business world? Please share your thoughts and experiences below.  I make a point of reading each and every comment.