How Leaders Can Get Trust Right (Simplified)
This is part 5 of The Math of Trust: A Leader’s Guide. Read the headlines for the main ideas. If you want details or justification, dig into the paragraphs that follow the headline.
“I’ve told you guys before and I’ll say it again. Trust equals time plus consistency. [paraphrased:] The only way to build trust is to be consistent over time. That’s what we do. We keep it simple. You can coach hard, but it’s got to be a simple message and you’ve got to deliver it consistently.”
Make trust simple by using the formula.
There are many approaches to trust building. Trust-building has become an industry that sells events, games, and fun "team-building" activities. Most of these focus on doing things away from work. There are good writings on strengthening interpersonal relationships. There are great books on influence and charisma. They explore traits like vulnerability and courage.
A lot of these writings have merit. Few bring easy-to-use ideas into everyday work, where trust erodes. Fewer still give direct ways for leaders to build trust into the fabric of their teams' work. There is a need for something that speaks to direct ways to build and protect trust in everyday interactions, especially in modern distributed environments.
I've seen leaders behave in too many ways that erode trust. Then, they attempt to make up for it through big events or workshops based on some of the writings mentioned above. Unfortunately, things return to normal after these events: more trust-eroding behaviors.
Why? The events themselves are single points in time. They rarely address the root issues we've outlined and don't do enough to trigger the formula.
As a reminder: Trust = (Time + Consistency)
The trust formula is a tool to help keep things simple. Read on for simple ways to embed trust into the fabric of your organization through its routines.
Take direct aim at trust by making it a game with points. Each time you reinforce the equation, it is one point.
The trust equation makes it simple to think about trust. A principle from gamification makes it simple to put the equation into practice. Think of every consistent interaction over time as something that earns you a trust point. Any time you combine time and consistency, you get a point. In the same way, each time you allow one of the situations we've outlined to break trust, you lose a point.
When viewed this way, trust becomes simple math. You can see why some things work to build trust and others don't. You can see when simple behaviors are building or eroding trust. We'll frame the methods below through the lens of the points they create. Make both your vision and strategy simple, consistent, and easy to understand. Otherwise, vision and strategy can become fluffy, ambiguous terms that erode trust.
Create and reinforce a clear vision.
Trust begins with clarity of purpose. Leaders must define their vision of the future. They must make it simple enough for people to understand. Then, they must remind people of that vision at every opportunity.
Doing this means leaders must:
Define a clear vision in simple terms: 1 point
Reinforce the company's direction on a consistent rhythm: 1 point each time.
Provide context for decisions so that while the path may change, the destination stays consistent: 1 point each time.
Communicate the vision across all teams and meetings: 1 point each time.
Use operating rhythms (an expression of consistency) to review progress against the vision: 1 point each time.
I've created a course available here to learn more about creating a clear and simple vision. If you need help creating your vision, ResultMaps offers some simple AI-charged tools.
Create and reinforce a clear strategy.
Consistency also requires you to have a simple, clear strategy. We've written more on creating this type of strategy here. The key concepts of a good strategy:
Have one single focus: one thing—and only one thing—that is your "north star" that guides your organization: 1 point.
Organize and prioritize everything around that North Star: 1 point each time you say "no" to other things.
Keep the North Star out in front where people can see it. Do this like you keep the vision out in front: refer to it in meetings and regular operating rhythms. That's worth another point each time.
Be clear and consistent about behaviors (aka "core values.")
Core values are the behaviors you expect from everyone on your team and at your company. Think of them as guardrails guiding behavior and decisions as you execute your strategy. Core values also let people know expectations when "gray areas" aren't covered by your standard operating procedures. They help add color to your vision.
Core values must guide hiring, firing, feedback, and promotion. This guidance is part of how they create consistency. Consistency creates trust over time.
Each time a core value guides a decision on hiring or firing, you gain a trust point. When unexpected situations arise or when uncertainty comes up, core values help guide decisions. Any time this happens you gain a trust point. It's another point when you communicate how the core value guided your decision.
When behaviors emerge that model your core values, it's a trust point when anyone calls them out. The form matters less than the act of appreciation and consistently reinforcing the value.
You can define or improve your core values with this guide and tools from ResultMaps.
Define numbers (aka "measurables" or "KPIs") to measure business health and success. Give each number an owner. Then, set targets to drive things forward.
Numbers can help leaders and teams stay proactive and responsive, even in the face of disruptions. The idea is simple: track a small set of numbers that show the health of your business. Then, give everyone on your team numbers that measure their success.
Systems like EOS call these numbers "measurables." Other systems call them "metrics" and "key performance indicators" (or "KPIs"). You can learn to set these numbers here. Whatever name you give them, once defined, assign one person to be responsible for the number. Then, you can set targets to improve by getting the number to its target.
These numbers give you consistent targets over time. So each time you have a number defined, with a single owner and a target, it's a trust point. When you use those numbers to provide feedback or make a decision, it's a trust point.
Create consistency in roles, accountabilities, and responsibilities.
Leaders can replace ambiguities and inconsistencies in their teams to create trust points. Do this by thinking of your team using Jim Collins' idea of "seats on the bus." Most companies create organization charts to define reporting structures. These only tell part of the story and leave ambiguity.
You can fill in the story by defining each seat by the processes, decisions, numbers, and targets it owns. Each time you do this, you create a trust point.
Create high-level process consistency - without introducing overhead.
Standardized processes are useful when they help people and customers. Anything else - for example, too many processes or high-overhead busywork processes - will often break trust.
Processes such as "standard operating procedures" help when they offer employees concise checklists that make outcomes clear and when they tie back to other elements outlined in this article. A simple checklist that has an introduction with clear context is best. Revisit processes in your update rhythms to improve and simplify them. This idea becomes important when people voice frustration or process improvement needs. Avoid long process documents or "process for the sake of process." To do this, keep your process documentation simple and to the point.
You earn a trust point each time someone uses a process that conforms to the above to help them do their job. You also gain a trust point each time you address and improve any needs in your processes. Finally, you earn a trust point each time you include a process in the roles, accountabilities, and responsibilities.
Create relentless update rhythms and keep meetings to a critical few.
Leaders can build consistency and trust points with a set of update rhythms. When used in the right way, these rhythms ensure progress, communication, and problem-solving. They also eliminate many low-value meetings.
The key to these rhythms is to use them to track and solve for the elements from earlier sections. They must have consistent agendas and timing. These rhythms include:
Weekly team meetings
One-on-one meetings focused on priorities and growth.
Daily, 90-second updates from each team member each work day.
Work session documents that can replace meetings when needed.
Monthly and quarterly business reviews
Annual business reviews
Research validates the power of consistent communication: A study of 2.5 million manager-led teams found that workforce engagement improved with daily supervisor communication (Harvard Business Review, 2017). At high-trust organizations, this type of consistent communication helps drive 76% higher engagement. This aligns with findings from The Progress Principle, where analysis of 12,000 employee diary entries showed that 76% of people's best days involved reflecting on and making progress toward goals - exactly the kind of insight these daily updates capture.
You can learn more about exactly how to install and use these rhythms in this ResultMaps Guide to Update Rhythms and Meetings.
You can reinforce the vision, strategy, measurables, and targets in each of these meetings (except for daily updates). Think of them as 1 point for each person who attends, as long as their attendance is consistent with your roles and responsibilities.
Build trust in how you address challenges and misses: be constructive.
Sometimes things go wrong. Other times, unexpected problems arise. And in some cases, mistakes and failures happen. Leaders who become emotional in these events can undermine trust. Instead, leaders must:
Take ownership of the situation and reflect on your role in the situation.
Focus on process improvement rather than looking for a "throat to choke."
Use failures as learning opportunities—and frame them as learning for the team.
These "musts" don't prevent leaders from communicating. They do protect you from eroding trust through your communication. When your handling of challenges and misses stays measured, and in the context of the elements we've defined above, you earn trust points.
Give and get structured feedback in the context of your consistent clarity.
Leaders must create meaningful 1-on-1 meetings that reinforce consistency. These meetings must include feedback on how things are going. They must include feedback on each person's effectiveness. They must have a consistent agenda. Each time you conduct a 1:1 meeting using this simple approach, it creates consistency and gives both parties a way to use the time well.
Use communication guides to create a consistent information flow.
Help your people avoid overwhelm by using a set of tool guidelines that lay out which tools to use when. You can get a Guide to Healthy Tool Guidelines here. This step removes an important obstacle to trust: overwhelm. People face many decisions about which tool to use and when. Clarify and simplify by using well-thought-out guidelines. You'll free people to focus on important trust builders while completing the "real work" you've defined through the prior steps.
Practice ruthless prioritization. Include a sequencing practice that sequences your backlog of things to do.
Now that you have regular meetings and work sessions with consistent agendas. Now that those meetings and work sessions focus on a clear vision, numbers, and targets, it's time to protect everyone's focus. Eliminate any work that does not support your North Star and your numbers. You can do this by eliminating situations that violate your core values.
As Steve Jobs once noted, prioritization is about saying "no." You build trust when you cut out things inconsistent with your vision, values, strategy, and targets. Every "no" of that type is a trust point. You break trust when you do anything else.
You can also sequence things that are competing to become the priority. Consider a situation where three things must get done at all costs this week. You can sequence the first 3 in 1, 2, and 3 order, then sequence at least the next four items in order, so you have a list of 1 to 7. This practice prevents people from thinking that someone should do your list's fifth most important thing first or second.
Each time you provide this clarity, you earn a trust point.
Stack your points to build trust.
Everything above is simple. Trust points are small things that leaders can overlook when busy with a workday. Track them to gamify the practice and continually build trust.