Do you trust your employees? Really trust them? If not, you might have a serious problem. Trust is extremely important in the workplace for several reasons: It improves productivity, makes workers feel more valued, and can even help improve customer service and brand reputation.
Members of your team should be able to make decisions on their own and feel confident in proposing new ideas or trying something new for the company. They should also feel like they can tell you “no” when “no” is the right answer.
As a strong leader, do not micromanage every aspect of what your employees do on a day-to-day basis. If you do, learning to trust them more could help you take your business to the next level.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the many reasons why it pays to trust employees.
Trusted Employees Are More Productive
When you trust your employees, it makes them feel like you see them as a valuable part of your organization. Lack of trust, on the other hand, instills the opposite feeling. Trusting your employees goes hand in hand with empowering them. Consequently, they are more likely to want to meet your expectations, fueling their genuine desire to do a good job for the company.
Building a culture of appreciation and trust makes workers feel more loyal to their organizations as well, which can help reduce turnover. This, of course, increases productivity by eliminating the need to frequently hire and train new people.
Last but not least, employees who feel trusted are more encouraged to take decisions, thus speeding up processes, making them leaner and more efficient. Instead of waiting for approvals coming down the chain of command, and without the constraints of regular checkpoints for no other reason than a lack of trust, trusted employees will complete projects more autonomously.
Trust Improves Customer Service and Brand Reputation
According to @Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2017, USA in today’s turbulent business environment, customer retention presents a significant challenge for many service companies (17 pages long) There is no denying that customer service is extremely important, and your employees are the face of your brand.
When you trust your employees, they can provide better customer service because they are empowered to offer answers and solutions right away and can develop a better understanding of your customers’ needs. Because they will feel more appreciated and positive about their jobs, they will identify with your organization and communicate with customers with more enthusiasm.
When employees are able to deliver exceptional customer service, it helps create and reinforce your brand’s reputation. This improves customer retention and, ultimately, makes your business more successful.
How to Start Trusting Your Employees
As a leader, it is not always easy to trust your employees. Giving up control and putting responsibility in someone else’s hands can be frightening as you move from being an individual contributor to becoming a leader, but it is necessary if you want to truly succeed and accomplish results through others. Unfortunately, starting to trust your employees isn’t as easy as going to work tomorrow and deciding to let go. It is more of a process than an overnight solution.
Start by making sure the people who work in your department are right for the job. They should be qualified for the position and be capable of working well with your desired company culture. They also need to understand and share your values.
Provide training for new employees and additional training for existing ones. Make sure everyone understands your team goals and values and how to implement them. Also, ensure that they are aware of your expectations and the consequences should they fail to meet them.
Offer guidelines to help employees understand how to handle different situations. These don’t need to be steadfast rules, but they should be clear enough to help your team feel confident being the face of the brand.
Trusted Employees Feel Appreciated
If you feel like your workers are not as productive as they should be, consider if lack of trust could be causing the problem. By learning to trust your team more, you can boost productivity, improve customer service, build a stronger reputation for your brand, and free up more of your time for working on your own tasks and other projects.
Letting go of some control and putting your faith in your employees is not always easy, but doing so will result in a more productive and profitable business.