To Forgive Or Not To Forgive – Mending Broken Trust In The Workplace

As the old saying goes “Trust is like a mirror, you can fix it when it’s broken but you can still see the cracks in the reflection”. It is sometime easier to throw away the whole mirror and buy a new one. However in work relationships, it can be more complex than that. Trust erodes slowly over time and affects how well we do our work. Eventually most talent will leave (bad) bosses in search of greener pastures. How can we rectify things before they escalate?

For example, in a small manufacturing company, the senior team failed to keep employees informed about the financial troubles the company was experiencing. So, when the layoff of 21 employees was announced in a meeting as well as the elimination of the quality department, the employees were shocked. No one saw it coming. 

Given the times, many people in the workplace can relate to this example. Many leaders are faced with having to make difficult cuts in order to stay afloat. It can cause fear and some tension amongst staff and this eats at the performance levels over time.

While these things aren’t addressed, they don’t go unnoticed.

Understanding how to regain trust: 

1. Empathize: Take into account how they feel being kept in the dark about business problem and layoffs. 
2. Demonstrate respect: Give them some sense as to why layoffs or reduced hours may be necessary as you think they are. Openly communicate about the business problems and measures you’re implementing to overcome them.
3. Help the team come together: Use trust exercises that combine their ideas and yours. Have tasks that have weekly commitments in order to execute them.
4. Invest in your teams: Build their strengths by sharing knowledge e.g. choose 1 day a week where star performers host a training session for their team members in order to improve their overall performance.
5. Using coaching approach: We have to train others to take our positions instead of seeing them as competition. Using this approach to build competence shows the team that you trust them to do just a good a job as you at the company. But also it gives them an opportunity to learn on the job and grow which helps you grow and move up as well.

The Reina Trust and Betrayal Model describes three main types of transactional trust:

• Contractual trust—trust of character. Do people do what they say they are going to do? Do managers ad employees make clear what they expect of one another? 
• Communication trust—trust of disclosure. How well people share information and tell the truth.
• Competence trust—trust of capability. How well people carry out responsibilities and acknowledge other people’s skills and abilities.

All the methods proposed (1-5) cover these types and will hopefully help you learn how you can build your competence in all of them as well. Unlike in the mirror analogy, I do believe trust can be completely mended. In my opinion, trust is more like a rubber band than a mirror. It can be stretched (sometimes to its limits) and not go back its original state. But this also means that it has made room for more. As long as we are careful not to break it by overstretching (the point at which it affects our performance levels).