There are three broad categories of people in every organizational change: the early adopters, the fence sitters, and the detractors.

The early adopters either (a) see the positive vision and take positive action to make the change work; or (b) see the handwriting on the wall and decided to jump on board early rather than risk having leadership see them as anything other than supportive.

The fence sitters have seen enough changes come and go to know that there is at least a reasonable chance that the change will go away if they can just wait it out. The fence sitters aren’t against the change. They may be ambivalent, or they may realize the work required to make the new idea work and decide to conserve their energy.

Detractors work either openly or silently to undermine the effort. The open detractors are the easiest to address because you know exactly where they stand. Open detractors often disagree out of legitimate concern that the organization is either doing the wrong thing or doing the right thing the wrong way.

Open detractors should be embraced as long as they are reasonable and respectful in their challenges. Experience shows that open detractors will often raise issues that should be actively considered and addressed.

The silent detractors are the most frustrating and potentially destructive. They can easily disguise themselves as fence sitters to your face and then de-rail your change through passive aggressive and clandestine subterfuge. Unlike the open detractor who will eventually come aboard with the change once their concerns have been addressed, the silent detractor may sabotage your change efforts for years.

The “Oh S**T! They’re Serious!” moment is designed to move the fence sitters off of dead center and send a clear message to the detractors that it is time to get on board or exit the train.

Creating the Moment

The “They’re Serious” moment requires visible action that sends a message. You will have to confront and possibly sacrifice a top performer who has consistently delivered results.

Let’s say that your company has a superstar regional manager who delivers amazing sales and operational results but consistently fails to follow the new reporting process you just rolled out.

Today, your superstar’s failure to follow the new change created a crisis that went all the way to the CEO before returning and landing in your lap.

If you want to send the message that change is important, you confront the regional manager, and take whatever action is appropriate – even if it costs you a star producer. If you want to lose the fence sitters and detractors, you overlook the action in favor of the solid revenue results.

People on your team are waiting to see how important every change you are making is to you. It is easy to hold a poor performer accountable. They want to see if the change applies to everyone – especially the stars.

Take that action and you will create the “Oh, S**T! They’re serious!” moment that creates the catalyst for true change.

There are only a handful of things at which you must be excellent to be successful in business:

• Consistently produce and deliver a great product or service
• Control your costs
• Engage your customers and prospects so that they know who you are and how you can help them
• Hire and engage people who are passionate about the opportunity to succeed and equip them so that they can

It doesn’t matter what type of business you are in, your model is not that complicated. But, it is hard. Really hard in fact.

• Demands on your product and service are always increasing. Everyone expects you to be better tomorrow than you are today. You do it. Why shouldn’t your customers?
• It is easy to lose control of your costs. Here’s what I’ve discovered in my own business: I rarely make one big decision that causes my cost structure to blow up. I do make a lot of little decisions that, by themselves, are benign. But over time, these little decisions drive up my costs to the point that they are hurting my success.
• Customers and prospects are more difficult to reach and engage. We see, on average, over 3,000 commercial messages per day. That doesn’t include the cacophony of digital disruptions that fill our day. Cutting through the clutter to stand out in a sea of virtual sameness can feel like impossibility.
• People are complex and time consuming. Most managers still hire for expertise rather than fit and energy. They think about filling a slot that represents a need rather than how does this position and person add value. It doesn’t get any easier once they are on board. Keeping people engaged and committed requires constant vigilance.

The Takeaway

Fight the rationalization and embrace the simplicity. It is easy to justify our lack of success by perceived complexities of our business model and marketplace. As a result, we either do nothing because success is out of our control or do everything in an attempt to find the magic elixir. Nothing ever changes until we tell ourselves the truth, and the truth is delivering the results you want is not that complicated.

Do the work. The real value of simplifying your business model down to its core components is that it allows you to focus on how to deliver results rather than what you should do next. The one thing that truly successful individuals and organizations know that you do not is that in the end, you have to do the hard work.

These are not competing priorities so why does their joint realization remain so elusive? For every Southwest Airlines that has turned an engaged workforce into a competitive advantage, there is an American Airlines where poor relationships with its bargaining units and employees has created a wedge that makes profitability a pipe dream.

Paul Simon once wrote, “Every generation throws a hero up the pop charts.”

That has certainly been true with approaches to managing and motivating the people side of the business. In the past thirty years the classic motivational theories of Maslow and Hertzberg have given way to Theory X and Theory Y, Situational Leadership, Management by Objectives, and Management By Walking Around.

One client, in a fit of management principle overload, described her organization’s philosophy as MBBS – Management By Best Seller.

Lately, the management airwaves have been filled with the strains of diversity, teamwork, engagement, and generational differences. And, the push for increased accountability surfaces every few years as attempts at engagement deteriorate into feelings of entitlement and execution suffers.

It is time to stop thinking about new management initiatives and start embracing leadership principles. Programs and initiatives come and go. Principles never end.

There is only one leadership principle you will ever need if your goal is a culture where everyone is committed to consistent results, strong working relationships, and volunteered accountability. I could string you along with case studies such as the telephone company that cut its turnover rate by 50 percent in 90 days; or the public university that hasn’t lost a single EEOC appeal for discriminatory treatment in over 15 years; or the mental health facility that engaged its team to pass full Joint Commission accreditation with no exceptions within two years of its opening. But, those would take time.

Here is the principle – the only one you will ever need as a leader:

When you recognize and treat employees as valued partners you earn the right to expect them to act as valued partners.

Here’s why this principle works:
It requires leaders to recognize, value, and seek to engage the unique differences and talents every individual brings to the workplace.

● It provides employees with the direction, time, tools, and resources to do their jobs.
● It provides recognition for contribution.
● It taps into the law of reciprocity that promotes connection to the organization’s mission, vision, and values.
● It creates a sense of fairness and equity when leaders must confront performance or behavior that doesn’t meet expectations.

Your Mission should you choose to accept it

Draw a line down the center of a page. One the left side, list every action you can think of that demonstrates treating employees as valued partners. On the right side, list every corresponding performance or behavior that you should be able to reasonably expect from employees who are treated in the manner you described.

After your list is completed, ask yourself this question: What could be different in my organization or on my team if I, as the leader, truly earned the right to expect others to act as a valued partner?

My guess is that the outcome would be a transformation in your results, working relationships, and accountability.

Let me know how it goes and how we can help.

The good news is that overall reports of misconduct are at historic lows and those who observe ethical misconduct are more willing to report it than in past years.

The bad news is that retaliation, pressure to compromise one’s ethical principles, and observations of a weak ethical culture are up since the last survey in 2009.

The most disturbing finding is that ethical misconduct is expected to increase – perhaps substantially – once the economy fully recovers. “Companies behave differently during economic difficulties,” the researchers noted.

Here’s the part that caught my attention. The report suggests that individuals and organizations are more willing to commit ethical indiscretions as they feel more secure and the quest for profits outweighs the desire to do what’s right. In essence, the willingness to do stupid, greedy stuff increases with increased profits, and the desire to do what’s right increases when the economy makes it more difficult to succeed.

This seems counterintuitive to me. Conventional wisdom says that people are more likely to cheat when, as the study stated, they are feeling more pressure to succeed.

I’m not saying the report is wrong, but isn’t it a little like saying that more people will rob a bank when they don’t need the money than when they do?

How about you? Are you more likely to violate your company’s ethical standards when it is harder to make a profit (and logically cheating could help)? Or, are you, as the study suggests, more likely to bend the rules when you are feeling secure in your job and the economy makes it easier to succeed?

Weigh in with your thoughts.

Supervisors are equally turned off by the process of performance reviews. They complain about the time commitment. They avoid the prospect of sharing bad news by passing out all good – or at least all neutral – reviews. They occasionally admit to manipulating the ratings to ensure that every employee gets at least some raise, And if they can ensure that everyone gets basically the same raise, all the better.

And then there is the issue of timeliness. Supervisors detest the time-commitment and psychological pain to the extent that many avoid the process all together. It is not uncommon to hear of reviews that are months and even years late. This only serves as further proof to employees and supervisors that reviews are basically useless. After all, how important can they be if the individual continued to function in their job without this supposedly critical piece of feedback?

It Doesn’t Have to Be That Way

Complete this sentence: Performance Reviews would be great if ….

I asked participants in a series of workshops that question last week, and their answers were surprising and inspiring. There were the usual responses thrown in for comedic effect such as performance reviews would be if I always received top reviews and the maximum pay raise. But, most of the responses suggest that performance reviews could be valuable tools to provide feedback, encourage improvement, and enable results if they:

• Focused on factors, goals, and competencies that were actually related to the individual’s job
• Were used as a tool to develop superior performance rather than criticize poor performance
• Occurred on time and were coupled with regular feedback throughout the year
• Are delivered by a manager who is prepared and genuinely concerned with helping the individual grow and succeed in their career
• Gave the employee an opportunity to proactively participate in a discussion rather than listen to the manager share his/her opinion
• Allowed the employee to share ideas about the help they need from their manager and ways to strengthen the working relationship
• The manager took the time to identify specific things the employee did well and on which she/he needs to improve rather than talking in vague HR speak
• Could be more objective

Why Performance Reviews Suck

In reality, performance reviews rarely resemble the utopian ideal described above. Here are three reasons why:

1. Too much emphasis on the form and too little emphasis on how performance contributes to results. One of the first questions I am asked by human resource professionals wanting to redesign their review process is, “how many forms will we have?” The second question is often “how short can we make the forms because our managers don’t like long review forms?”

A performance review process that is built for administrative ease rather than improving individual and organizational performance is doomed to immediate irrelevance. The number of forms should be determined by the realities of the job rather than the administrative burden of managing the process.

Likewise, review forms should be as long as necessary to ensure that you are providing meaningful feedback and encouraging important discussions. If there is something on your form that doesn’t do that, it is too long. If there is something needed on your form to accomplish those things, it is too short.

2. Managers and employees are not trained to successfully hold or participate in meaningful, positive feedback conversations. Teaching people to complete the form using your automated process isn’t the same as preparing them to conduct and participate in a meaningful review discussion. An accurately completed form never served as the catalyst for a change in performance. An honest, positive conversation on the other hand, has the ability to transform working relationships and spur excellence.

3. Managers don’t really care about employee development, and neither does the organization. Forget the words in your value statement that says employees are your most important resource. How else do you explain managers who refuse to invest the time to adequately prepare for review discussions, treat them as an imposition, and view on-going feedback as a chore that gets in the way of their “real job?”

Managers point to the time constraints imposed by an organization that overloads them with too many responsibilities. If there are more responsibilities than time, the organization is saying that it doesn’t really care about developing people. If the problem is isolated to specific managers and supervisors, the organization is still sending the same message – it doesn’t care about employee development. If it did, it would develop or remove its managers.

Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson wrote these words over thirty years ago in The One Minute Manager: Feedback is the breakfast of champions.

Performance reviews could be great if they were designed and delivered to help people become the champions your organization needs and your employees want to become. We simply need to be willing to put in the work to make them great.

The U.S. economy added 243,000 jobs in January 2012, and the unemployment rate dropped from 8.5 percent to 8.3 percent.

That’s huge, and everyone should be excited regardless of their political affiliation. This is the type of employment gain that solidifies the economic recovery.

But, what if the right number turns out to be the wrong measure?

Economist John R. Lott, quoted in a Baltimore Sun opinion piece that ran on February 11, 2012, noted that while the unemployment rate had indeed dropped, the number of unemployed had risen from 11.6 million in January 2009 to 12.8 million in January 2012. Additionally, 43 percent of the unemployed had been out of work for six months or more compared to 29 percent in January 2009.

Need more confusion? Outsourcing firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas announced that layoffs in January 2012 were up 28 percent from December 2011 and 39 percent from January 2011.

So is the job situation getting better or worse? The answer to both is, “Yes.”

The unemployment rate is affected by two numbers: those working and those who have dropped out of the workforce. In other words, the unemployment rate can show improvement when people give up on finding a job. And, about 1.2 million have done just that.

Are we witnessing a seismic shift?

Supporters of President Obama are inclined to read this as “gotcha” politics. Opponents are equally inclined to view it as further proof that President Obama can’t be trusted.

Both are missing the point. Presidents have historically used the unemployment rate as an indicator of economic health. They take credit when it improves and blame when it gets worse.

History tells us that a drop in the unemployment rate translates to an increase in people working. But, what if we are seeing a fundamental shift in how the economy works? More important, what if we are witnessing a shift in how society views their opportunity for work?

What this means for you

As a teenager, I worked as the statistician for the local sports editor covering high school football games. I kept track of the number of first downs, penalties, yards gained, fumbles, interceptions, and any other piece of information that might be interesting to know.

Most games, you could look at the statistics and tell who won. Twenty first downs are better than four. Three hundred yards gained is better than fifty.

But not always. Sometimes a team could dominate the statistics and still lose the game.

You can have the right number and still be focused on the wrong measure. The United States can win the battle to lower the unemployment rate and lose the total employment game.

Sales can be up, and your company can still go out of business because you focused on the wrong measure. Your weight may be perfect, but you can still die because you forgot to keep track of your cholesterol.

Managers keep score based on the game they believe they are playing. Leaders constantly scan the horizon to make sure they are playing the right game.

The difference in those two perspectives keep you focused on the results that matter.

If you are a Republican, you have learned that there is not one perfect candidate and that there are things to like and dislike about all of them.

But if you are a leader, the on-going battle between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich offers two important lessons about selling yourself and your ideas.

1. You have to connect with the head and the heart.

Consider Mitt Romney. He looks and speaks Presidential. He has a proven track record in the private sector. He knows how to create jobs. His views are at or near the center of the American political spectrum. He has an outstanding organization with plenty of money. He polls well against President Obama even before the general election smear tactics/campaign begins.

If you are thinking with your head, Mitt Romney is the logical choice for the Republicans to nominate.

And then, there is Newt Gingrich. He doesn’t particularly look Presidential, and he’s been known to sound more like your grumpy great-uncle Mory than the leader of the free world. His campaign is not particularly well funded. And, his views are often controversial. Despite his mostly brilliant performances in the Presidential debates, there is still a lingering fear that Newt will wander off the reservation and create an incident at the worst of all times.

Gingrich is a brilliant person with big ideas, but logically, he’s not the Republican nominee for the President of the United States.

Except for one thing – Newt connects with the heart. He growls at a debate moderator, and the audience cheers because deep down they wish they had the courage and intellect to say the same thing. He scolds the Washington status quo, and the audience loves him because he connects with their emotional dissatisfaction with government status quo. His ability to connect is so strong that some are willing to forgive his occasional off-the-wall remark as evidence of his authenticity and forget his long history as a player in Washington, DC.

Mitt makes people think he’s qualified to be a Presidential contender. Newt makes people feel that he’s the guy who would say what needs to be said if he were the President.

Here’s the lesson: Aristotle described three types of persuasive appeal: logos (logic); pathos (emotion); and ethos (ethical credibility). Assuming equal credibility, emotion works well for justifying short-term action, and logic works well for long-term action.

To be most effective, master the ability to persuade with logic and emotion. Ronald Reagan did so, and that is why he was called The Great Communicator.

2. People decide when it matters to them not when it matters to you.

A surprising statistic from the Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina Republican primaries was the high percentage of likely voters who did not decide on the candidate for whom they would vote until just before the election.

One explanation for this could be the lack of any one candidate to connect with both the head and heart of the voters. But perhaps there is another related factor: voters knew that more information would be forthcoming almost hourly. Why should they decide early? In many ways the voters are saying that they expect the candidates to work harder to convince them.

Here’s the lesson: Followers are, in many ways, like voters. Their commitment is the vote, and it must be earned. They will decide to give you their commitment and support on their terms not yours. Leaders must work harder to understand what it takes to earn the support of followers. Otherwise, the most you will get is reluctant compliance.

Presidential elections are a living laboratory for what followers look for from their leaders. We’ll check back in on a periodic basis to dissect and amplify the lessons.

In the meantime, please weigh in with your comments.

Chad’s new book, Doing What Must Be Done, will take you on a journey from despair to triumph. At the age of 27, he had a beautiful family and everything going his way. Then a terrible accident changed his life forever. The story would end there for most people. But Chad Hymas isn’t like most people.

As you are about to find out, there is much to learn from Chad.

I recommend that you purchase Doing What Must Be Done right now. Its lessons are important for your life and your business.

Randy Pennington

Corporate Paralysis
Chad Hymas

It is often said that communication is hard-wired to the bottom line of your business. What drives your bottom line? Is it a talented team that can execute or a marketing team that is competitive and motivated? Although these factors are important in your success, I believe without effective communication, you will fail.

How is your company doing? Is it doing okay – but not great? There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong – at least, not something you can put your finger on. Your employees are well chosen, intelligent, and talented. They do a lot, but what you really need them to do doesn’t seem to get done.

When that bale of hay fell on my head, I suffered a broken neck; my spinal cord was also damaged. The rest of me was fine; not a contusion, not an abrasion, not a bruise, but communication between the CEO (my brain) and my hands was compromised.

Nothing from my shoulders down works well. I can no longer walk, run or jump. I am in a wheelchair because the loss of communication between my brain and my body was compromised.

When the lines of communication in a corporation are down, communication is compromised both ways. The head – the head office – can’t get through to the body and the corporate body can’t send adequate feedback to the head. The CEO doesn’t know what’s going on downstairs and the corporate body doesn’t know what’s going on upstairs. Everyone is in the dark. They may be doing their jobs – but they aren’t getting the job done – because they don’t really know what “Done” looks like.

Effective communication is a two-way street. Signals must go in both directions and those lines must remain open. Loss of communication can take down anyone or any organization, no matter how viable or strong. The mighty Superman – Christopher Reeve – was felled, not by kryptonite, but by loss of communication. When he was thrown from his horse, his helmet saved his corporeal CEO, his brain, from the impact, but his neck was broken, his body deprived of instruction, and instantly paralyzed.

Though my brain is able to get information through to my body, it can’t send anything back; hence, the feeling of total disconnect. No sensation of anything below shoulders. Unless I look down, it seems I have no body at all. I feel like a floating head.

My hands and fingers get nothing and send nothing. It is my eyes that make it possible for me to type. They have to look and see what is going on and report to the CEO, so the boss can get some information to my biceps and wrists and rely on them to do the job that a thousand other muscles in my arms, wrists, hands and fingers should be doing.

They do the best they can. I type with paddles strapped to my wrists. This works okay. I can type fifty words per minute. For someone in my condition, that is darn good!

I am not complaining. I can and do a lot with my life, but I could do so much more if my brain and body could communicate better. How about you? How much more could your company do if your lines of communication were clear – both ways?

Is your corporate body communicating well with your executive team? Or is your corporeal organization suffering from a broken neck and compromised lines of communication?

What are the hidden costs behind poor communications? What is the risk to your company’s future if your leadership cannot communicate effectively, or if people can’t communicate with them?

Not only is the bottom line impacted, but costs as well. Have you ever wondered how much money is wasted by overworked employees that are wasting time putting out fires that could have been avoided if done right the first time?

How much better would you do if your lines of communication were open and clear – in both directions. I believe you would go from “okay” to “super” rapidly.

© 2012 by Chad Hymas. All rights reserved. You can learn more about Chad Hymas at http://chadhymas.com/.

We’ll begin with a review of our 2011 predictions. Here are the five predictions we made going into last year:

• It’s beginning to feel like a recovery.
We asked an important question in 2011: “What if this is the new normal?”

It turns out that we were right. The economy was in recovery mode for most of the year, and even main street was starting to feel more confident by the end of the year. But as we cautioned, the debt crisis in Europe was a drag that is still present in 2012.

• Jobs: improving but nowhere close to being back.
We said that it would take sustained growth in the range of 450,000 jobs per month for the next 18 to 24 months to return to unemployment rate to something close to what we remember just a few years ago. And, we said that nothing much would be felt until the second half of the year.

The job growth numbers in the fourth quarter of 2011 show that we were on target with a realistic unemployment rate at 8.5% (the high end of our predicted range of 8.2% to 8.5%).

• Battle for the best heats up.
We accurately predicted that employers would pay more attention to engagement and compensation in 2011. Training budgets began to thaw from their deep freeze, and “culture” became the code word for all things related to organizational development.

• Organized labor and substantial immigration reform shut out in Congress.
We predicted that organized labor would not get its “Employee Free Choice Act” through Congress. We also said that there would be nothing significant completed on immigration reform. In hindsight, we should have gone even farther by predicting that Congress would be completely dysfunctional. And though we were right on Congress, the Obama administration may look at changes via Executive Order. They won’t be as much as he would like, but it could set up an interesting confrontation with Congress.

• The 2012 Presidential election has begun.
We said that every action would be filtered through the lens of the 2012 Presidential election. That is correct.

We also said that you could expect to see more centrist priorities prevail. We missed that one by a mile. It turns out that both the Democrats and Republicans believe they can afford to blame the other for a lack of cooperation. Bi-partisan leadership was an oxymoron for most of the year.

By my math, we hit 4.5 out of 5 for a score of 90%.

What’s Ahead for 2012
Here are five economic and workplace related predictions for 2012:

• Hold your breath – and your nose – until November. The Republican nomination should be wrapped up by May. That’s when the conversation really gets interesting. The Republicans will point to the glacial pace of the recovery. The Democrats will tout consistent positive effort. You will hear that this is a battle for the soul of America, and the accusations will get personal. In other words, it is just another U.S. Presidential election year. This will be entertaining theater unless we are hit by an unplanned calamity – like the North Korean or Iranian government doing something stupid.

• The recovery expands … sort of. If I am correct that the world economies are tied together more closely than most people imagined, the U.S. economy will experience another year of slow growth. I’m thinking 2.0% to 2.5% on average through the first six months. If I am wrong – and I hope that I am – economic growth in the U.S. is poised to accelerate. Most businesses have cut all the fat out of their operations. The focus will be on growing the top line. Election results are the variable for the end of next year, although I don’t see an outcome that dramatically changes things in the short term. The good news is that state and local governments should see their revenues flatten and perhaps grow a little as housing prices solidify and sales tax receipts pick up toward the end of the year.

• It’s beginning to feel a little like job growth. Adding two hundred thousand jobs per month normally sounds like a big deal. This recovery is not normal.

We’ll continue to see hiring, and it will occur mostly in small to medium sized businesses. Large companies will be very strategic in their hiring as they wait for the European debt crisis to play out. There will continue to be pockets of strong job availability (Have you looked at North Dakota yet?). And, there will continue to be demand for health care professionals with training (See the prediction on education that follows).

If you can help companies grow their top line sales, people want to talk to you.

Unfortunately, your opportunities for finding a new job will be diminished if you are older or less educated. I can see the unemployment rate in the 7.5% to 7.9% range by the 2012 Election Day. The key number, however, is the number of people not working or working at a job for which they are over qualified. That number will continue to be higher than the unemployment rate suggests for the entire year.

• Education matters more than ever. If you don’t have a high school diploma or GED, get one. If you don’t have at least some college or haven’t completed a trade education program, go do that. If you are close to completing a degree of any sort, stay with it. An Associate’s degree is becoming this generation’s high school diploma. Your level of education is becoming the single most important factor in landing a job. With college graduates working as Barista’s at Starbucks, the competition for the best jobs will be fierce.

One more observation about education: Don’t choke yourself with debt to pay for an education that you may not need. Colleges and universities are a business, too. Tuition is their equivalent of sales. Investing in yourself through education is smart. Taking on debt that you can never repay because your degree is worthless in the marketplace isn’t.

• The Millennials are really coming this time. I’ve been waiting to say this for several years now. The Millennial generation born after 1983 is finally ready to take their place in today’s organizations. They were ready back in 2008, but the economic meltdown hit them exceptionally hard. Expect big employment gains from this group now that hiring is picking up. And with that, get ready for a highly motivated group that works extremely well in teams and has a strong desire to succeed. You can also expect this group to challenge your thinking, your use of technology, and in some cases, your authority.

Managers will have a choice: learn to relate to this group and harness their energy to help you succeed, OR watch the best and brightest of this generation look to your competitor for an opportunity to kick your butt.

2012 has the potential to be a pivotal year in our economy. And, I am absolutely sure that, collectively, we have an opportunity to make things better. Here’s wishing you a wonderful year filled with amazing results!

©2012 by Pennington Performance Group; Addison, TX. All rights reserved. This article may be downloaded for personal and professional development. Copies may be shared within an organization, and reproduction for publication is encouraged, with the following attribution: By Randy Pennington, President of Pennington Performance Group. Contact 972-980-9857 or Mary@penningtongroup.com.

Most people won’t look you in the eye and say, “I don’t trust you.” That is especially true if you are in a position of power. But, the symptoms of mistrust are there. It is up to us to see them.

You could be experiencing a lack of trust if you are seeing any of the following:

• Withholding information and selective communication
• Questioning goals, strategies, actions and decisions
• Protecting their own self-interest at the expense of the team or organization
• Acting inconsistently with the organization’s values
• Low or diminishing commitment and engagement

Here’s What You Can Do
Here are six actions you can take immediately to earn and maintain the trust of those you want to influence:

1. Follow through on commitments. Our research with organizations shows that the number one behavior causing mistrust is managers not doing what they said they would do. It is that way in most types of relationships.

If you can’t meet a promised deadline, tell people in advance. If you promise to run interference for your team, make sure your sense of urgency matches theirs and report the results. If you tell your team that being at work on time is important, make sure you address the person who is chronically late. If you don’t honor commitments, you won’t maintain trust.

2. Communicate, communicate, and then communicate. Communication is everything and everything communicates. Talk straight, and talk often. Set clear expectations and create shared understanding of priorities. Your team knows that there are things you cannot share. They want to know everything you can talk about, and they want to feel that you are telling them the truth rather than spinning the message for your own benefit.

Communication goes beyond talking. A reputation for listening and actually caring about what others are saying is the stuff of legends.

3. Get better at your job. Would you blindly follow someone out of a burning building if you were convinced that they had no idea what they were doing or where they were going? Then why would you trust a minimally competent leader to provide direction, set priorities, or keep the team focused on results?

Your team improves when you improve. More important, they trust more and question less in uncertain times when they believe that you know what you are doing.

4. Be consistent. We value and learn to trust consistency in action and response. When consistency is absent, people naturally protect their own interests even if it makes the team less successful. When consistency is present—especially when combined with open communication—people tell you what you need to hear rather than what you want to hear. They are more confident, and they are not constantly looking over their shoulder to see how you are going to react to every incident or piece of bad news.

5. Be very clear about your values. What are the principles that are so important that you would never compromise them? The most difficult challenges we face are rarely the choice between a clear right and wrong. More often, the choice between competing values forces us into decisions between the better of two acceptable options or the lesser of two poor ones. The clearer you are on your values, the more trust you will build.

6. Have their back. There will come a time when you can either stand up for your team or throw them under the bus. You will have an option to be an advocate for their success or allow them to flounder on their own.

The outcome of standing up for your team is less important than the action of doing so. Your team knows that you can’t control every decision or action. You will earn their respect and trust when they know that you will stand up for them even when it is not convenient.

The absence of trust turns small problems into huge barriers. It causes people to focus internally on protecting themselves rather than externally on meeting customer needs. Most important, it creates a cancer that destroys any opportunity for long-term success.

Don’t wait. Act now to build and maintain trust.