Gaining trust is hard, especially for leaders.
One study finds that just being in a leadership position (a power position) makes gaining trust more difficult. Why? Because people in the low-power positions tend to have a natural assumption that those in higher-power positions "place little value on the relationship them them, thus [tend] to behave opportunistically." This is an example of power-distance, and it can kill a company.
(To learn 7 ways to tell whether you have a power-distance gap with your coworkers click here).
Even when you have a strong relationship with those you lead, this power imbalance is always there in the background. There is always a fear that the leader doesn't value the relationship as much as the follower. As a leader that is pretty sobering.
Leadership is hard. It's a big responsibility. You can't be a good leader if you don't care about your people. But it's not enough to care. It is not enough to be trustworthy. To be a great leader, you have to make sure that your people know you care and that they know they can count on you. Gaining trust is a never-ending process.
If you are like me, it bothers you to think that your employees may not fully trust you. So here are some tips on gaining trust that you can use to help reinforce your relationship with others. These are based on 4 factors for gaining trust developed by Wharton School of Business professor Maurice Schweitzer and Fast Company's Lisa Evans.
4 Trust Building Tips....
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