From the Ask Tom mailbag. This comes from Thomas Hochgeschurtz at 2eck.com, in response to The Consultants Kept Their Fee.

Question:
Telling the truth is painful, therefore you had a painful day, writing this post. However, I missed the one step further. “What you believe determines your behavior” brings up the question, how to change the “beliefs” of our employees. And this is “trust”. We can make the craziest decisions, if your people trust us, they go with us. Otherwise, if the people don’t trust us, even the best decision is not accepted. Tom, give us your opinion how to built trust in today’s working environment.

Response:
Say what you mean and do what you say. Are there any questions?

Trust is central to managerial effectiveness. Here is a great question to ask in any situation. “In the decision I am about to make, will it create trust or destroy trust?” There is no neutral. You are either building or destroying trust.

Creating trust is a battle for the thoughts of team members. A manager is either winning or losing that battle. And it is not just decisions, or actions. Organizations have entire systems that create and destroy trust. It’s a thousand things.

And when it is a thousand things, we cannot write them all down in the Standard Operating Procedures Manual. Our only hope is a small word, culture. Culture is that unwritten set of rules, beliefs that govern our behavior. It is organic, non-linear and by hook or by crook, it exists. A manager can intentionally influence it or allow it to go its merry way, at great peril.

I got started on this track last week after spending three days with Don Schmincke, High Altitude Leadership. He traveled up and down some treacherous climbs, studying leadership in “death zones.” Chris Warner, his mountaineering guide describes conditions on K2, where the death to summit ratio is 1 in 5. Chris is careful to point out, on the ascent, the bodies that must be stepped over, all facing downhill, with a summit picture in their pocket.

While climbers certainly perish on the way up. It is the unexpected trek down that snares those not paying attention. You see, the goal is gone. That, which bound the climbers together, that welded their trust toward the summit, has disappeared. Each climber separates and selfishness resumes its character. The path is dangerous in either direction, but trust fades and punishment is swift, sometimes fatal.

So, what is the lesson, for us, as leaders? You must snare the imagination of the team, and earn their trust through a goal, a vision, a story for which they have passion.