Written by: Shanaiya Kudumula, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
I recently stumbled upon a quote – simple, yet profound! It stated “A healthy relationship is built on unwavering trust”. I have come across professionals, leaders to be more specific, who start their conversations with “trust me”; When I hear this, I am simply taken aback. Trust is a notion that can make or break a professional or for that matter even a personal relationship.
Fact: ‘Trust' is not is given or handed to you, instead it is something that needs to be earned.
This makes the process of earning trust in an ever-changing business environment, more challenging.
I have curated three powerful steps to simplify this process and to help you develop trust across your teams.
People in general will trust others when they understand that the person has their best interest and well being at the centre of any process — regardless of the outcome.
To convey the essence of this through your leadership practice, it requires you to display a sense of acceptance and tolerance towards one and all.
Step 1: ENGAGE
First and foremost, become acquainted with the fact that as a leader, it is not simply about how you drive the process (and thereby an outcome), but more about your mastery to drive your people to take ownership of that process.
When you begin to engage with your teams, do so with intention and empathy.
Provide clarity and access to information and tools that will charge your teams with confidence and conviction in their journey.
Communicate regularly and keep building on it. Be authentic and transparent in your engagement.
Have check points in place to ensure people have the right set of resources to rely on to overcome any obstacles and are feeling valued.
Create a culture of collaboration by providing opportunities for people in your teams to ideate and expand on the vision.
Take into consideration that real engagement comes from understanding your people and their strengths.
People walk into their professional lives with a set of skills, however, they also step into their roles with the hope to learn more and further their careers.
Therefore, as a leader, you have the responsibility to leverage those strengths whilst helping them hone skills in other areas that they are passionate about.
In this sense you are not just a leader but a ‘guiding-force’ who will help navigate their professional pathways. This is your first step towards sparking trust.
Step 2 : EMPOWER
Engaging your teams with intent is critical; when done right, it lays a foundation for this next step in the process which is empowerment. This step is pivotal in establishing purpose.
Empowerment is the catalyst that will fuel individual and team motivation. The key is to ascertain alignment between the person and their professional goals.
Therefore, it is important to understand your individual team members’ capabilities and competencies; this will act as your catalogue to collective success.
To empower your teams it is important to consider the following:
Delegate effectively. Set right tasks, right roles, and right time frames — all of these factors will have an impact.
Establish a clear reporting line. It is most frustrating for a team member to feel lost or stuck when you’ve been tasked with something. As a leader your role will have to switch to that of a facilitator and a mentor who provides consistent and prompt support.
Have your communication channels open and keep building on them; there is no such thing as ‘over-communication’. Once again, be conscious in your conversations with not just your team, but with teams across the organisation, so that you are in sync with the wider view.
Be flexible and value input. When people know and can see that your leadership actively promotes individual and team contributions, they feel appreciated and it will foster a culture of collaboration.
As a leader when you prime others, they have the opportunity to play off their expertise and learn from their OWN successes and failures.
Be mindful and respectful in providing constructive feedback – this, cements the process of empowerment.
While its hard to pin point the ONE thing that would get everybody going, I can say with a degree of certainty, that fulfilment has an immense role to play.
Therefore, empowerment requires you —as a leader— to make a sincere effort to help others garner motivation.
It will also energise you to become adept in understanding your team members and how they see themselves serving and accomplishing in a holistic manner.
Higher levels of employee satisfaction, teams working more diligently on a shared purpose and increased levels of collaboration are all among the many benefits of empowerment.
Empowerment as step two then forms the core of your leadership practice that will not only build confidence in the collective vision, but also cultivates a ‘culture of trust’ across various levels of organisations.
Step 3: ENRICH
Enrichment is the direct output of the level of engagement and the degree of empowerment that your teams experience.
One has to steer away from the traditional view of enrichment that exists in the business world. Business leaders typically believe that enriched employees are more productive. Instead, the shift has to be made to reverse engineer that process, where we make employees feel enriched so that they become committed to the overall objectives and achieve success.
Professional enrichment is a matrix of both fulfilment at work as well as personal growth. When a person feels enriched, it means that they are physically and emotionally charged to become a better version of themselves.
In my view, the following are crucial to ensure and sustain enrichment:
Reward and Recognition - We as human beings blossom when we receive authentic acknowledgement for our efforts. Individual and team achievements should be rewarded in a timely and in a fair manner.
Reflection - Take time out with your teams to reflect. This will allow individuals to integrate their learnings with their colleagues. Spend time to reflect and reassess the ‘peaks and pits’ of a project or a task, as this will have great advantages for future productivity.
Responsibility - This is a by product of the team reflections. It is vital to leave room for dialogue during this part of the process. People need to feel that they can offer authentic feedback and how improvements can be made in the future without feeling judged. Essentially, this will also enable them to take responsibility of their input toward the shared outcomes.
Recalibrate - This is something that leaders shy away from. There are moments during your leadership journey where you will feel like you could have made different choices or done things another way. When you gauge this, it is your role to bring that to the forefront and prepare your teams to exercise alternate ideas or to apply their skills in a distinguished manner.
Provide pathways for future projects or tasks where new members of the team are willing to try a new skill or contribute in areas outside of their normal practice. This will reduce employee fatigue, lower turnover and promote creativity.
During the enrichment process, one fundamental factor that will stand you as a solid leader is your ability to communicate. I am not just referring to practicing clarity of speech, but also reminding you the importance of being a keen listener. This is the ‘golden key’ to establishing those connections with your people.
When you as a leader strive to create an environment that provides enrichment, team members do not feel limited to a job description and will seek past their current skills and pursue opportunities to expand beyond.
In other words, your leadership becomes a vehicle to help individuals advance their professional learnings.
Enrichment also provides avenues through which other team members can see their leadership come to life. Here, you are paving a path for emerging leaders — those you have mobilised.
Therefore, this is the third step in establishing and sealing the trust with your teams. Conduct yourself with authenticity and transparency and you will have raving fans for the long haul.
Remember, it is not what you say or do; but it is about how you make people feel, that they will treasure the most.
To sum it up, the three steps for a leader to earn and nurture trust is to engage to spark intention, empower to establish purpose and enrich to ignite inspiration.
When you are ready to shed all inertia, embrace the others with a high degree of acceptance and tolerance, and exchange an equal measure of respect, it is only then that you become a chamber of motivation.
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Shanaiya Kudumula, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Shanaiya is a celebrated leadership and communication expert. Her passion for the realm of people and business transformation is all-encompassing. Having anchored the research fields of corporate governance, psychology, and employment relations, she stands as a bespoke leader with in-depth knowledge that she channels towards engaging, empowering and enriching people and communities globally. She wears her ‘multiple hats’ of being a mom, a businesswoman, a researcher, a model and a mentor with impeccable grace & poise ‒ her essence stands her apart from the rest. Shanaiya is renowned for her unique voice and her ability to connect with people through powerful articulation and story-telling. Shanaiya has been bestowed with many accolades such as “the most eloquent speaker”, “the best transformation & leadership coach”, and “best communication expert” on social media platforms such as Instagram and Clubhouse. Shanaiya’s potpourri of skills is just what today’s business world needs. An authentic boss lady who strives with a motto towards life “I don’t know how…but I know, I will” - urging us all to master the art of self-belief!
