Mr. Cellophane: Be a Transparent Leader

Businesses often underestimate the value of trust and transparency, yet these are fundamentals to operating a successful business. Companies go to great lengths to ensure they have created a culture of trust within their workplace, and yet, they fail.

A recent study completed byErnst & Youngthat concluded that employees do not trust those leading their business:

Less than half of global respondents have a “great deal of trust” in their current employers (46%), boss or team/colleagues (both 49%).

There are many factors as to why this is the case but it isn’t the purpose of this blog post to examine those reasons, but rather to offer solutions and explain why it’s necessary. We have solidified 3 key strategies to help leaders build trust and transparency.

One-on-one check-ins with your team

Holding quick and frequent individual check-ins with your team is imperative. Trust begins with an open dialogue with your team. How often you’re connecting with them will matter just as much as what you’re talking about. This is why Bwiredhas team meetings every day. Your team needs to know that you have their back, and simply meeting with your employees once a week can go a long way toward helping build that trust.

Transparency Culture

Employees want to work for businesses and leaders who are transparent. The issue is that many leaders are scared because they don’t want transparency to give the impression that they are less authoritative. Ironically, a leader’s inconsistency in this regard is creating distrust and viewed as less authoritative. Embracing transparency requires leaders to share not only the good news but also the bad. Openly share their struggles will allow the team the opportunity to grow. Doing so demonstrates to employees the kind of behavior and culture that is expected. When things go wrong and leaders don’t share their struggles, it creates distrust. Remember, trust is like credit, easy to lose and hard to rebuild.

Encourage and Empower

Take every opportunity to push forward positive encouragement. This does take some effort but the results are compounded. When employees have a leader who is sincere in their encouragement, employees tend to give back more than what is expected. Businesses that empower their team members allow them to leverage their individual strengths to see even greater results. It was Phil Jackson who said “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”

Leaders who focus on each of these areas will set themselves up so that their team will see the most success. If you’re interested in learning more about how your leadership might be impacting yourinbound marketingstrategy, Bwired is here to assist.