Before we get into this article perhaps we should ask ourselves what is the value of having a ‘High Trust Culture’ in any organization?
Why would we go to the trouble of investing time and money in helping our leaders, managers and teams develop the skills and mindsets needed to create and sustain such a culture within our organization?
I believe many of us would agree that some of the indicators of such an organization might be:
1. More open communication between leaders, managers and teams (no silo-thinking, no misunderstanding, greater clarity)
2. Greater transparency and individual empowerment are both prized and facilitated
3. Leaders deliver results through influence and collaboration rather than a ‘command and control’ approach – a culture of shared accountability and responsibility rather than blame and
4. The organization attracts and retains the best of talent.
In an attempt to explain some of the key areas that help with creating a High Trust Culture I have repurposed a model I created many years ago for the key areas addressed when one provides leadership coaching - which I call the ‘6C Model’.
It is comprised of the following key factors: CONTEXT, CLARITY, CONTROL, CONFIDENCE, COMMUNICATION AND COMPETENCE.
1. CONTEXT: The first part of the model deals with Context or, to be more specific, the organizational environment.
Many leaders, managers and staff are simply responding to the increasing challenges on time that we face everyday. The environments that we find ourselves working in constantly change and the pace of change may be such that we find ourselves reacting to the changes rather than being proactive.
We find ourselves working in constant fire-fighting mode, simply holding the line against the growing tide of work and the demands that the organization and the market seem to be heaping upon us.
The demands placed upon us are such that little time is available for active reflection and team members are driven by external forces rather than by their own compass.
Companies and cultures are often unaware that they have moved into a reactive mode.
This has to potential to create a highly stressed, toxic and low performance environment that has high levels of staff dissatisfaction and low levels of employee engagement or innovation.
2. CLARITY: In such an environment there are few opportunities for periods of ‘enforced reflection’ – or facilitated conversations held by managers and team leaders who are trained not simply to just be experts and to find things to ‘fix’ when people do things ‘wrong’ – but to be influencers, advisors, advocates and collaborators.
A period of ‘enforced reflection’ is a space and time away from their normal environment where the manager or team leader can guide and facilitate a reflective period for a team member – encouraging greater clarity, focus and an environment where they can bring to bear the values of collaboration, co-creation, co-operation and co-creation into the manager and team member dynamic - the values that build a ‘High Trust Culture’.
Through effective rapport-building, questioning and suggestion skills a manager can help a team member quickly identify the critical challenges they are facing and then systematically structure an active approach to their resolution.
Lack of clarity and meaning deprives us all of the ability to focus and act effectively. It maximizes stress.
However helping a team member to clearly define their focus, perhaps how to get greater clarity around their role and their expectations, the authority that they have to get things done and what is expected of them - is an essential part of improving performance – not just understanding ‘what’ they have to do for the business but ‘why’ it helps them personally too.
Why? Because focus creates expectations and expectations drive behaviours.
We have to help our managers develop the skills of synergy and co-creation.
3. CONTROL: With clarity accomplished, a team member should now find a greater sense of power over their environment. They are now in a position to choose their actions and activities.
A person’s sense of control can be further developed by a leader or manager using a simple model of mine with a team member which I call ‘C.I.A.’ - which stands for ‘Control. Influence. Accept for Now’.
‘C’ stand for Control – do we control this action, can we do it once we leave the meeting, can we act on it now, immediately? This is the first order of change, what we control - we should act upon.
‘I’ stands for Influence – if they do not control this action, can they reach out to someone who does, someone who might act on this for them and can they influence them? This is the second order of change - who they can influence or what might be called a ‘relationship’ action.
This is where educating our staff in networking skills enabling them to be able to comfortably connect and build their brand, name recognition and connections with other parts of the team or organization adds significantly to their value and effectiveness.
That and teaching them the skills of working with different personalities or even effective questioning skills so that they can make more change then before by being able to reach out to their new networks.
Finally....
‘A’ stands for Accept For Now – if people do not control it and they cannot influence it, then they are encouraged to walk away, for now. They are taught to focus on what they can control and influence and ‘park’ temporarily what they have no control or influence over.
How much time and productivity is lost at all levels in an organization when people spend a great deal of time worrying over things that they can neither influence nor control. By educating them to act on what they do control and influence, that which they have to ‘park’ for now, may fall within their control and influence in time.
4. CONFIDENCE: With clarity and control comes a greater sense of self-esteem in our teams, a belief in their individual ability to deliver at an individual level.
Self-esteem is increased once they have clear goals and the power to exercise them. Confidence is boosted by the successful achievement of quick ‘hits’ or small actions.
Success breeds success and with growing success comes more energy, more self-belief, more self-confidence in every member of our teams.
Confidence is infectious. A person whose confidence is based on clearly articulated goals and empowered by controllable actions, can be a powerhouse within a team or organization.
Such people are willing to try more, do more, be more – in effect, to accept more responsibility for initiative and delegation.
Michael Gerber, author of the E-Myth, wrote that extraordinary things are seldom accomplished by extraordinary people, rather they are accomplished by ordinary people doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. To do that they must have clarity, control, confidence and can successfully communicate with others. Imagine the cumulative impact that can have on an organization.
5. COMMUNICATION: The first four ‘C’s’ lead unerringly to the fifth – effective communication.
Organizations are networks of individuals. Networks function only as effectively as information is transferred through them.
Imagine a network of individuals managing their environment, actively reflecting and amending their goals, deciding on the most effective actions and with enhanced self-esteem and confidence. How effectively would they communicate?
The essence of good communication in today’s flattened corporate structures can be defined in another simple idea of mine – ‘C.I.E.’.
Connect. Influence. Engage.
Several years ago an SHL report confirmed what has become a fact of the modern workplace that the ‘psychographics’ of people have changed in the last decade. The report states that twenty and thirty-something’s want collaborative forms of management rather than the old style of ‘command and control’.
In order to create such collaborative styles, managers are having to re-learn their management skills.
It’s not enough to simply ‘command’ and dictate now – not just enough to communicate, they must now have the essential skills of ‘influencing’ and engaging their team members.
Management still faces the challenge of moving from ‘Industrial Age’ management (which was fear-based, short-term and hierarchal) to ‘AI Age’ management (which is collaborative, co-creative and partnership-based).
Many of us, as managers, have ‘modeled’ the management styles of those who preceded us.
However today’s management style is required to be different. We need to learn not just to communicate our needs but how to influence and engage the new networks in finding the solutions to corporate challenges.
How do we ‘Influence and Engage’ more effectively? By learning techniques such as active questioning and listening, establishing rapport, develop role clarity exercises, defining employee communications preferences and then adapting our personal style to suit them. These are the tools of the modern manager and leader.
What were once termed ‘soft skills’ are no longer optional they have become the basis of ‘soft power’as AI increasingly handles the automated thinking and doing. Expertise is no longer enough to lead now we need to have managers and leaders who are also powerful influencers and advisors.
6. COMPETENCE:
Put all of the above together and we come up with enhanced competence or performance for the individual, the team and the organization.
Once Context, Clarity, Control, Confidence and Communication are successfully addressed then there is a corresponding increase in Competence.
The benefits of educating our teams, our managers and leaders in the skills of what it takes to be influencers, connectors, advisors and facilitators – what it takes to create a High Trust Culture - are now evident:
1. More open communication between leaders, managers and teams (no silo-thinking, no misunderstanding, greater clarity)
2. Greater transparency and individual empowerment are prized and facilitated
3. Leaders delivering results through influence and collaboration rather than a ‘command and control’ approach – a culture of shared accountability and responsibility rather than blame and
4. The organization attracts and retains the best of talent.
-Sean Weafer SeanWeafer.com and ExpertToInfluence.pro
