What are the 13 Habits of Trustful Leaders?

A core component of successful leadership is to build trust. They play a crucial role in building trust in themselves and their organization.  Leaders set the tone for the principles of the company and establish norms of behavior.

Research has proven that a lack of trust in teams and organizations causes issues that result in toxic working environments. We think of toxic work environments as those that have enough evidence of:

• A high employee turnover
• Gossip or office dramas
• Poor communication
• Burnout
• Chronic stress
• Bullying
• Lack of transparency
• No motivation or enthusiasm
• Absenteeism / employee sickness

The results of a toxic workplace erode productivity and results. Studies from (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) MIT show that work environment and culture is 10.4 times more likely to affect company attrition compared to pay and compensation. Even when they are paid well, employees are less likely to endure a work environment that is toxic, unsupportive, and negative.

Trust is at the center of all good working relationships. It’s time to focus on building trust in your organization, as when you trust those that you work with and those that work for you, everyone is likely to have a higher level of confidence. The benefits of trust will show up in your business mostly as people show up to do their best work. They are going to feel more positive and emotionally connected to the team and will be motivated to help the company get ahead. In high-trust environments, people are confident in themselves and others. They don’t have to worry about whether something will get done or not – they know what to expect from each other and they know what is expected from them. They will find it safe to challenge themselves, and as a team they can be bold and take sensible risks together and share any burden that comes from it together.

It’s not just people that do better in high-trust company environments as businesses that have these environments perform nearly 2x better in earnings than the general market.

So, how as a leader can you build trust in your business? Here are 13 habits that you can adopt to help you build supercharged trust in your working environment. Remember that it takes time to build relationships with your employees so don’t expect a complete change in attitude overnight! Do everything you can to stick to being a trust-centered leader, as once trust is lost in any relationship it can create an awkward feeling that something is off-balance. It can be difficult to earn trust back once it is broken because it compromises a person’s sense of safety. Even if the relationship is repaired consciously, there will be remaining issues around trust left in the subconscious of that person’s mind that will take a much longer amount of time to address.

Habit 1: Speak the truth

Leaders need to share information openly and freely. It’s important to keep the team updated on what is going on in the company. They do not withhold resources from employees. Dishonest leaders cannot expect to retain talented staff for long. Whilst leaders do not need to tell every employee in the company absolutely everything, they should realize that they should not make key decisions or keep the outcomes of certain decisions as a secret. No matter how difficult or uncomfortable it is, always speak truthfully and as a result people will be more likely to follow you.

You can build trust at an individual level with your employees by providing regular feedback. If you include a good mix of positive and constructive feedback it sets a powerful tone that you are both supportive and can set a challenge for your people. You should also be open to hearing feedback from your managers and employees too, at the right time and place. All of this should happen with respect shown towards each other.

As a business owner, it is your responsibility to encourage open communication through each level of your company. An environment where employees and team members can communicate openly is truly special. Even if there are opinions that differ from leadership, when people are able to communicate honestly and openly it fosters ‘diversity of thought’ in an organization. The benefit of having diversity of thought is that it makes the organization stronger. When you think about it, there are multiple ways to think about things. An environment that encourages open communication allows different viewpoints to be voiced. It can enhance the growth that a company experiences as new ideas are voiced instead of everyone saying and thinking the same way, and then the company remains stagnant.

Habit 2: Care for those you lead

It’s important that as a leader you respect everyone you interact with, even in small dealings. You will attract respectful staff, clients, suppliers, and connections that will benefit you and your business much more than if respect didn’t exist. Everyone wants to be seen as an individual and a person in their own right. People will naturally trust you more if they feel that you’re truly interested and care about them. At The Service Strategist, we recommend that you help develop a rapport with your staff by remembering some of their little personal details and goals. This could be something such as the name of an employee’s child, or asking how their house move is going will make people feel recognized and included.

If you want your employees to open up more to you, then you need to be prepared to share details about your own life. It doesn’t need to be your entire life story, but it’s fundamental in building trust in a relationship. By sharing some of your own stories and personal experiences, this can go a long way to make people want to share theirs too.

Habit 3: Be transparent

Being a transparent leader means that you keep people in the loop, by sharing the good, the bad, the honest, and welcoming feedback from those who work for you.

For the owner or leader to do this, it can feel quite uncomfortable at first because you need to have a willingness to be honest and open with your employees, which can make you feel quite vulnerable. If people can confirm you do not have an agenda, then you will gain authenticity.

The goal here is to make transparency a two-way street between the owner and the employees. It’s about “give and take” and working well when you and the team agree that you are all working toward the same goal, and the same vision. For your team to accomplish their goals to further the business, they need to have a clear understanding of the why and the how.

You need to make sure that your team sees and understands why certain decisions are made. People often want to understand why you do what you do, they are just afraid to ask because it would have been considered to be nosy in their last workplace. Encourage people to ask questions and be curious and share ideas. Make them part of the process, and they’ll feel like they are part of the solutions as well.

Habit 4: Right wrongs

Righting wrongs is fundamental to being an influential leader. It’s time for you to put pride and ego to the side and realize that you need to admin your mistakes quickly and deal with them. We tell all the business owners that we work with to leave their ego at the door. When it comes to messing up, leaders that are insecure are afraid of look weak. We teach business owners to realize that not admitting to their mistake makes them look worse in the long-run, and usually costs them a lot of respect when their employees uncover the truth.

It’s bad practice to try to cover up or blame others for what went wrong. Yes, everybody has accountability but if you are the leader of the organization then a lot of responsibility falls on your shoulders. If you have made a mistake, it doesn’t have to be a big deal, just simply acknowledge it, explain how it is being dealt with and move on.

People don’t like to hear excuses. If you do something wrong, it’s best just to be upfront about it. If you realize that you were incorrect about something, own up to it. When you make a mistake, you can also turn it into a positive teaching point and share with others what you have learned from the experience of it. The best leaders are the great teachers, mentors, and guides who share their way after having made mistakes and failings.

Admitting mistakes is also part of being honest; you demonstrate integrity and fairness when you correct wrongs. Being vulnerable enough to admit fault can humanize you and make you appear more trustworthy. All team members should be able to rely on their leaders for fair treatment. Provide yourself and your team with the opportunities to learn from their mistakes and right their wrongs. If you can do this inside the walls of your business, you should be able to continue it outside in a client’s home or whenever you provide an interaction with your clients.

When you decide to role-model as a leader how to right wrongs it sets the real-life examples for your employees to learn, understand, and follow themselves. Your clients will be much more satisfied when your employees show the same dedication to righting wrongs, even when it could be the tiniest detail that the client didn’t even notice! The honesty of admitting and solving mistakes goes very far to make people more trustworthy and people will subconsciously feel safer.

Habit 5: Be loyal

Stand up for those you lead and do not speak poorly about anyone under your leadership to anyone else you lead. This also goes for personal information that is shared with you in confidence. Keep the bonds of trust strong.

Loyalty is what separates being a leader from being a manager. You gain loyalty by appealing to the emotional interests of your employees. You get to leverage your emotional intelligence and soft skills.

When the time is right, loyal leaders are not afraid to show that they can roll up their sleeves and pitch in. When this happens occasionally, it shows to the group that even though it’s not the leader’s job to do this, that they care so much about the team and giving support that they are willing to push the boundaries to aid them. In an emergency, leaders are the first ones on the scene, offering to do whatever is needed to get the job done.

You’ll inspire more loyalty if you’re always supportive and appreciative of others. You can overcome employee’s negativity and resistance by being optimistic and encouraging. They will soon understand that you are here for the thick and thin of it and there is no point complaining because you’ll all be struggling but it’s better to focus on working hard to achieve greatness together.

Habit 6: Obtain results

An employee needs to be able to see that they are working for a leader that obtains results. The best way that they will be able to see this is by seeing a business owners track record. It’s also an important part of establishing mavenship in their industry too.

To lead you need to produce results. Set the pieces and move them towards a target & achieve it. Always keep the length and budget under control and deliver on what you say. Never make excuses for falling short of your set target.

It’s time to rethink what you think counts as results. It’s not just about making lots of profit and dominating your industry. There is much more to obtaining results, and the truth is that what one person considers to be a result won’t necessarily be the same for another person. It’s important to generate positivity and results around your business in a variety of ways so that it comes across as well-balanced.

What are the sorts of things that future workers (and clients!) look for that show the track record of a business owner?

• What clients think and say (Google reviews)
• What other employees think and say (Glassdoor reviews)
• Growth (expanding to new locations and becoming bigger in the market)
• Stories and articles about business in local news – positive news stories.
• Nominations and Awards
• Industry Certifications
• Going the extra mile (getting involved with the community, becoming more environmentally friendly, supporting, and partnering with social initiatives)

Now you can rethink your results and start ensuring that you are working toward goals other than growing your profits. When we think about building trust as a leader; their employees must be able to believe that their leader can get the job done. In other words, they are in control and keeping the business safe whilst their staff get on with what they need to do!

Leaders must repeatedly show that they have expertise and balanced judgement. Employees are more likely to trust a leader when they know that they have the knowledge and expertise. It builds authority and trust. You can seriously leverage your technical capabilities to make good decisions for your company while improving the trust of your workers because they see that you know your stuff!

Habit 7: Continuous learning

Leaders are always learning and never resting on their abilities, they fully adopt and role-model the ‘Growth Mindset’ where they believe that they can always get better at something if they work for it. Feedback is an essential way to learn effectively, and trustworthy leaders should always accept feedback with a gracious attitude. The future always holds uncertainty, and the best leader prepares their skills for tomorrow. To be able to adapt to uncertainty, changing situations, and ensure that your team continues to feel supported and motivated, you need to get comfortable with hearing what you’re doing well and where you could be doing more. No one is born a perfect leader, despite the phrase “natural-born leader”. Leadership, just as any other skill, requires practice and continuous learning to become more effective. Most of the top leaders in the world haven’t got to the position they are in by pure luck or chance. They have worked hard at what they do, and then when they became a leader, they worked on becoming an even better leader.

Leaders who actively seek and embrace feedback cultivate a deeper understanding of their impact on others, their leadership style, and their overall effectiveness. As a business owner and leader, you should realize that your people may not feel comfortable giving you feedback, which is why you need to make a point to ask for it. Show them how open you are to receiving feedback. This way, feedback helps your team members open up and voice their opinions about your leadership. It gives them the opportunity to say what works for them and what doesn’t work. Encouraging clear, actionable feedback puts you in a position of power to make better, more informed decisions about the way to lead people.

If you decide to act on some of the feedback that you receive, it can be a highly effective way to gain trust amongst your employees. It shows them that you listen to them and that you value their perspective. When you do this successfully, you show your people that you support them and that your leadership is not about you; it’s about making the organization run as smoothly and productively as possible.

Habit 8: Clear requirements

You build trust by creating certainty, and you create certainty by creating and establishing a clear mission and working toward that. Building trust in your business is more likely to happen when your employees have clarity around what is expected of them. It is not known unless you state it clearly and concisely. It’s easy to cross lines when they aren’t clear. Do not assume it is understood implicitly even if it seems obvious. A study from the global research and management firm, Gallup found that only 50% of employees know what their manager expects from them at work. You can see how those employees might not be able to fully trust their managers whilst they are feeling that way.

When a leader is super clear about what they expect, this minimizes workplace conflicts because everyone knows what their role is and what is expected from them and by everyone else. It also shows people what is not tolerated; it creates clear boundaries for how people in your business operate.

The best practice for sharing expectations as a leader is to:

• Define expectations for each individual or if you have a larger company, each manager that you have.
• Set expectations with employees during the onboarding process. 
• Communicate guidelines both in-person and on paper. This way minimizes the “he said / she said” misinterpretations.
• Creating a consistent rhythm for the completion of work. For instance, every project cannot be a “rush project.” What is a realistic timescale for completing work? This could vary across different teams.
• Ensure expectations are agreed upon and understood.
• Work through hesitation, questions, or problems about the communicated expectations

Habit 9: Fully accountable

The results and outcomes are a leader’s responsibility. To be an effective and trustworthy leader, you must be able to hold yourself accountable for your actions and decisions. Hold the parties (including yourself, your managers, your employees) accountable for both the good and bad of the results. If things go poorly the leader takes the blame and shields those that they lead. This accountable behavior should be echoed through the position levels of your business. You should be showing your managers and employees that accountability is important no matter the role or responsibility level.

Habit 10: Assess the facts

Even if the discussion is cold & hard, it needs to be had. Take on matters with direct action and lead people with courage through muddy waters. Do not avoid the real issue once you find it.

Employees don’t expect their leaders to know everything, but they do need to hold a certain level of confidence in the leaders’ capabilities. To build their confidence, root ideas sound in evidence suggesting industry best practices, and share trends, education and resources to relevant employees and teams.

Habit 11: Keep promises

Your words are your honor. It is symbolic of how you lead, and you must keep your word at all costs. Always get done what you say you will do. Do not break a promise or make an excuse as you why you chose to break it.

Follow through on commitments. To be reliable, leaders must ensure their actions line up with their words. Employees will quickly lose faith in a leader if they can’t rely on the leader to do as they say.

A trustworthy person does everything in their power to stick to agreements they’ve made. If you make a promise, follow through on it. Avoid making promises that you might not be able to keep.

Habit 12: Listen

You will never have all the answers, insight, or knowledge. You rely on those you lead to make up where you cannot. But you cannot learn from others if you do not listen to them. Let people ask questions and speak.

As a business owner, you should know that your employees are unique individuals who have their own ideas and viewpoints. When you ask them to say what they think, make sure that you are genuinely listening. When you listen to someone it makes them feel that you are interested in their intellect, which is a powerful way to make someone feel more self-assured, confident, and secure. These feelings help to build trust because they recognize that they are not judged, shouted at, or punished for expressing themselves in an appropriate way.

The basis for positive workplace relationships is built on mutual understanding and trust. This means that you need to be making a conscious effort to ask your employees questions and encourage them to expand more so you can truly understand what they’re trying to communicate. There are opportunities to listen every day, and you can embrace them as the leader of your business. For instance, you can set aside some time in meetings for employees to discuss their work experience and how they’re feeling. Remember that you should be ready to listen to both positive and negative responses, and that you need to demonstrate you’re open to their feedback whether you agree with it or not.

Habit 13: Measured trust

Trust those who have earned it and assess the risk of leaving that task in another’s hands. People should work up from appropriate levels of responsibility and be given more when they demonstrate to you that you can rely on them and that they are trustworthy. Lean into trust but know when to withhold it if the person is not ready for the burden of a task. It’s good to acknowledge from both sides of any relationship that it takes time to build trust. Do not trust everyone to the same level but ensure that you are always creating and growing a network of people that you can trust.