Clegg argues trust is the foundation of great company culture, cutting turnover by 50% and boosting innovation. Leaders build it through consistency, transparency, and active listening. He recommends four recurring meetings: structured one-on-ones, skip-levels, informal lunches, and biannual stay interviews.
Questions this video answers
50% less turnover.
September 29, 2023.
60% performance, 30% professional development, 10% relationship.
Chapters
If you study the best company cultures across the world, they all have one key ingredient that makes them great. Now, there are three benefits that you're going to get from having this key ingredient. One of them is a retention of your talent. In fact, you're going to have 50% less turnover when you have this key ingredient. The second thing is continuous improvement. Companies that have this ingredient have a tremendous amount of innovation. And then last, teamwork and collaboration. These three things are huge benefits to organizations and a great competitive advantage. Unfortunately, very few companies lack this key ingredient. And that key ingredient is trust. Warren Buffett said that trust is a lot like the air we breathe. You only recognize it when it's absent. A lot of organizations say that they want trust, but very few organizations teach their leaders how to build and develop trust. And we're going to do that today for you in this video. So why does trust really matter? Well, a couple reasons. One, trust drives relationships. Relationships are those connections in the workplace. Those connections drive engagement. That engagement is what drives the retention. Not only are they less likely to leave, they are more loyal to the organization and to their teammates, which ultimately leads to high performance. And according to the Harvard Business Review, organizations that have leaders, which I call trust and inspire leaders that have those leaders that focus on developing these connections often have a stronger bottom line, higher client satisfaction and a greater return for their shareholders. And you don't have to work in a public company to receive these benefits. Privately held organizations get the same benefits. The next thing is trust elevates psychological safety. Psychological safety was a term that was coined by Harvard business professor Amy Edmondson. And Amy says that teams that share psychological safety, it becomes a belief that's held by the members of the organization that it's okay to take risk. It's okay to express your opinions or your concerns without fear of retribution. So first, psychological safety leads team members to feel that their contribution matters and that they're able to speak up without fear of retribution. Second, it leads to better decision making as people feel free to speak up about their opinions and share those concerns. It leads to a more diverse range of perspectives. Third, it fosters a culture of safety and continuous improvement. Not only do teammates feel comfortable they making mistakes, they feel comfortable sharing those mistakes so that others can learn from them. That's what drives innovation and change. So how do you build trust? Well, first, you gotta be consistent. And consistency means in your words and your actions. As I say, does the video match the audio? Are you doing what you say you're going to do when you Consistently deliver on your promises and commitments. You are building that rapport with your colleagues and then they know that they can count on you. Next is about communication and that communication needs to be open and honest communication. There are three parts of that. The first part is about transparency. Be open about the goals. Talk about upcoming changes that could be coming. The more transparent you are, the more that you drive that safety inside of organizations. The second is active listening. Pay attention to what others are saying. Seek to understand the their viewpoints and feedback. When people feel heard and valued, they're more likely to stay inside of the organization. And then last, provide constructive feedback even when it's difficult. Constructive feedback, when delivered with compassion and empathy, can build trust by showing your commitment to their development. And the last way is empathy and respect. Having empathy for someone else or being able to deliver bad news or with care really does matter and it drives trust. Respect everyone, regardless of their background, regardless the organization that they came from, regardless of the industry they came from, respect them. Treat them with care. Finally, for all you leaders, after this video is over, I want you to run out and start planning to do these four things. And these four things are meetings that you need to have with your team that will help drive connections leading to trust. The first connection meeting is one on ones. The one on one has developed what I call a 60, 30, 10. 60% is performance, 30% is about professional development and 10% is about relationship. The second meeting is a skip level meeting. This is when you're going to meet with the employees of your direct reports. Now this is important to develop transparency around this meeting and to let their employees know that you're going to provide feedback to to their leader of what you learn in this meeting. Now, once the team understands that it's a safe environment and they can trust that this is going to be used against them, it's a very powerful meeting. The third meeting is called Breaking Bread. Now this is a very informal, casual meeting. This is where you're really looking to develop a relationship that is the sole focus. You're learning their hobbies, their interests, some things about their family and what keeps them up at night. The last meeting and it is the most important meeting in my opinion and in my experience. And that's the stay interview. The stay interview. You will learn more information than all four meetings combined. Don't wait until someone's about to leave and then say, oh, I got to go do a stay interview. No, at that point you need to run and do an exit interview because it's too late. Stay. Interviews can be conducted twice a year. That's plenty the first time that you do it. Don't be frustrated if you don't get a lot of information. As you build trust, you will get a lifetime of information. So all you leaders run and put these into your schedules, literally starting now. So I hope this helps you learn to build and develop trust in psychologically safe environments. As usual, feel free to subscribe to our YouTube channel where all things are going to be about leadership development. And don't forget to like and comment. We really appreciate your feedback.
