The crisis of trust in today’s world and the growing mistrust of people towards each other is also visible in the corporate environment.Trust and seeing someone as trustworthy are crucial factors which shape the dynamics and the quality of communication between the employees as well as the employers. In this short text special emphasis is put on the relationship between the leader and employees in this area.
The leader as the representative of the employees and the major decision maker is prone to making mistakes which will result in the loss of trust by employees. Below you will find the most important ones:
- Unequal treatment
Being biased in favor of specific employees or/and degrading others leads to the loss of trust. Unequal treatment, which is manifested through promoting certain employees not for their performance but for relationship with the boss, is a sign of mistrust to other employees, their competences and their engagement.
Let’s consider the position of the person who has received special treatment. They might be wondering for how long they will be treated better than others and whether at some point this will change. Is this a sign of kindness or is there a hidden agenda? These kind of fears can have a negative impact on the image of the employer as a trustworthy person.
- Unfulfilled promises
It is more difficult to trust an employer who does not keep their word. In relation to your private life, once you decide to take up a sport you usually commit yourself to doing a physical activity regularly for a certain period of time. And if this does not work you feel guilty.
You can see that you were not able to keep the word given to yourself and so your self-trust diminishes. A similar situation takes place when the boss does not keep their word given to the employee e.g. they do not delegate certain tasks or refuse a promotion which they promised.
- Delegating tasks
Employees feel frustrated if they do not know what they are expected to do. The management style and delegating tasks impacts trust enormously. It is of vital importance even when newly given tasks turn out to be unimportant from the view of the employer after a certain time. The employee will become irritated and will be less enthusiastic towards other tasks in the future.
- Lack of feedback
Once an employee has fulfilled the tasks entrusted to them, they expect a reaction from their boss. Everybody knows how important feedback is but not everybody will provide it willingly. This can impact the image the employee has of their own competences. Furthermore, this can also affect the trust in situation when the boss manipulates information or gives dishonest feedback.
- Excessive control
Control and trust are closely linked together. In particular, the following cause and effect chain is typical for the business environment: poor trust in an organization results in an increased surveillance of employees and a tighter system of control. This is a vicious circle. Employees distrust their employer they interpret his or her actions as a sign of distrust towards them.
- Commenting behaviors of employees in the presence members of the team
Nobody likes to be the object of gossip. We feel uncomfortable if our behavior is commented in the presence of other people. In this context, the employer might use praise as a means of building their positive image in the eyes of the employee, while pointing out mistakes can have an opposite effect and damage the coherence of the team.
Once employees are ready to share information openly and tolerate mutual mistakes, then the space for creativity grows, as well as universal trust. As a leader you need to remember that your are responsible for creating and maintaining the atmosphere of trust. If employees lose trust towards you, take immediate steps to change the situation. Thus, you will improve the synergy in the employer-employee relationship.
