Latest / Leadership Sandbox: Strategies to Uplevel Workplace Communication, Team Collaboration, and Your Corporate Culture / The Trust Gap: Why Your Team Isn't Following Your Lead

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The Trust Gap: Why Your Team Isn't Following Your Lead · Leadership Sandbox: Strategies to Uplevel Workplace Communication, Team Collaboration, and Your Corporate Culture

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  So picture this, friend. The senior team spends two days at
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  an off-site and they come back with a new strategy, a
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  new set of priorities, new goals, and a beautiful slide deck.
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  And it gets announced at the all-staff meeting and everybody claps.
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  It's wonderful. And then nothing. Six weeks go by.
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  The frontline is doing exactly what they were doing before, maybe
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  even a little bit slower. And here's the question.
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  And this is what I want you to ponder.
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  I want you to sit with this today.
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  What if the problem was never the strategy that was presented?
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  What if the problem was trust?
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  Hey, welcome back into the Leadership Sandbox.
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  I'm Tammy J. Bond, and I am excited about this show
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  today. Because this is where we look at what's really happening
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  on the playground of your workplace, the behaviors, the attitudes, the
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  habits, the beliefs, the expectations. The stuff that nobody puts on
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  the org chart. Nobody puts it in your strategic plan.
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  And today we're talking about the number that stopped me cold
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  in my tracks this week. It's where trust lives in our
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  organizations and more importantly, where it doesn't.
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  So stick with me because by the end of today's episode,
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  you're gonna have five things that you can do this week
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  to close the gap on your own team.
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  So the research today comes from DDI's Global Leadership Forecast for
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  2027. It was released just last week, and it's one of
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  the biggest leadership studies in the world.
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  More than 11,000 leaders and 2,500 HR professionals across 1900 plus
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  organizations in over 50 countries participated.
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  And here's what they found. Buckle up, Buttercup.
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  Here you go. Among individual contributors, the people who actually build
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  the product, they build the widget, they serve the customer, they
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  answer the phone. Just 21% trust senior leaders.
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  21 friends. That's roughly one in five.
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  Look around your next team meeting.
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  If you've got 10 people in there, two of them, only
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  two of them trust the folks at the top.
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  And before you managers in the middle breathe a sigh of
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  relief, like, I knew it, it's not me.
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  Only 25% of individual contributors trust their immediate manager.
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  Oof, that's one in four. And that's you.
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  That's me back when I was leading teams.
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  And now here's the number that really should change how you
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  think about all of this. Leaders who trust their senior leaders
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  are 5.9 times more likely to say leadership decisions actually translate
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  into action in our organization. Almost six times, friends.
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  So let me put those two findings side by side.
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  Trust is the lowest at the level where execution happens.
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  And trust is the thing that turns a decision into action.
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  That's not a culture problem sitting off on the side, waving
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  at you. That is an execution problem sitting right in the
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  middle of your boardroom table, right in the middle of your
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  team meeting, right in the middle of your cubicle nation.
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  So let's talk about why is trust.
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  The lowest at the front line.
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  Why is that? I don't think it's because individual contributors are
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  cynical. I don't, I don't think that at all.
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  I do think it's because they're the ones with the consequences
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  of our decisions as leaders. And they're watching, they're watching our
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  behaviors, they're watching our announcements, they're watching our follow through or
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  the lack thereof. And I think about it like a sandbox.
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  The people at the top decide where the sandbox is built,
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  where it goes, how big it is, what's in it.
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  The people in the sand are the ones who feel that
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  when the rules change in the middle, right?
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  They feel it. And they notice when somebody comes in and
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  kicks over their creations and throws sands and comes in and
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  nobody says a word when they're stirring up the sandbox.
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  And I see three patterns that erode trust the fastest.
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  One, The Say Do Gap. We announce people first, and then
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  we cut training that fast. We cut the training budget.
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  We say, we want your ideas, and then the idea goes
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  into a black hole, or somebody else takes ownership of it.
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  And every gap between what we say and what we do
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  is a withdrawal from the trust account.
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  And the front line keeps a very accurate ledger.
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  Number two, the decision fog. A decision comes down with no
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  why. Attached to it, know why we're doing it, right?
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  People fill the silence with their own storyline.
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  And the story is almost never generous, friends.
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  And when we don't explain the reasoning, we're asking people to
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  trust us blind. Most won't. They'll take a day off that
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  day. And number three, the overloaded manager.
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  This one is for my managers in the middle of the
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  room. You're being asked to carry the change initiative that you
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  didn't design. Explain the decisions you weren't in the room for,
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  and still hit your numbers every day, every week, every quarter.
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  When you're stretched that thin, you start passing messages along instead
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  of leading through them. Your team can.
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  Hear the collective sigh, they can hear the difference.
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  It sounds like, well, the execs say, or well, corporate says,
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  or well, the CEO says. That phrase, corporate says, or the
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  execs say might be the most expensive two words in your
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  organization today. Because in that moment, you just told your entire
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  team that you don't trust the decision, you don't trust the
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  person. So why should they? And here's what I want you
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  to hear in this moment. Trust isn't a feeling waiting for
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  people to have. It's the result of the behaviors we repeat,
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  which means it can be built on purpose.
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  Tracy Bayam, the CEO of DDI, said it this way: something
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  about the research that I want to read to you because
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  it flips the usual script, flips the playbook.
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  She said, Organizations can't slow the pace of change, but they
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  can make sure leaders have the support and capabilities to meet
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  it. That may mean making a counterintuitive choice.
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  Giving leaders who drive urgent change the time and capacity to
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  build their skills while they continue to deliver.
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  Building change-ready leaders protects more than their well-being.
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  It protects their ability to perform when the business needs them
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  most. Counterintuitive is the right word, I think.
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  Because when the pressure is on, what's the first thing that
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  we cut? Development, coaching, the one on one that we'll just
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  push it to next week. And we tell ourselves that we'll
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  invest in our leaders once things quote calm down.
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  Things are not going to calm down, friend.
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  They're not going to move at a slower rate of speed.
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  So if you're a senior leader listening, I want you to
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  hear this. The manager you're leaning on the hardest right now
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  is the one who most needs time and attention to build
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  those skills that you need. And if you're that manager, protecting
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  your own growth isn't selfish. It's how you stay ahead of
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  the game and it's how you stay the person your team
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  can trust while everything else around shifts.
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  So, all right, let's get practical here for a minute.
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  Cause I want to give you the five things real quick
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  and in a hurry that you can start.
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  Changing this week. You can start putting into action this week.
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  Number one, ban the corporate says speak.
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  Before you pass on any decision, ask yourself three questions.
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  One, what was decided? Two, why was it decided?
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  Three, what does it mean for the team?
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  For this team. And if you can't answer those why questions,
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  go get that message before you deliver anything.
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  And if you disagree, say so upward, respectfully, yes.
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  Then own the decision downward. I'm going to do an episode
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  on upward and downward messaging. It's super important.
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  Action item number two for you today.
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  Run a say do audit. Grab a sheet of paper on
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  one side, write three things that you've told your team matter
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  most. On the right side, I want you to write out
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  where your time and calendar, right, actually meet those.
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  Where those columns don't match, that's where trust is leaking out.
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  Pick one gap and close it this week.
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  Work to close it this week.
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  And action item number three, I want you to close the
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  loop within 48 hours. When someone brings you an idea, a
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  concern, a challenge, a question you can't answer yet, that's okay.
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  Tell them I'm gonna get back to you within two days.
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  Tell them the buy when, even if the answer is I
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  don't know yet, here's when I will.
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  Silence is the black hole and a follow-up is a deposit
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  in that account. Action item number four, name your missus out
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  loud. One of the fastest ways to build trust in an
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  organization in a team is to admit when you've got something
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  wrong. Not a big confession. Just I handled that poorly.
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  Here's what I'm doing differently the next time.
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  It tells your team the truth in safety, right?
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  And in your presence. And action item number five, protect one
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  hour for growth. This is for you, leader.
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  Do it every week. Put one hour on your calendar for
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  your own development, whether it's to listen to the Leadership Sandbox
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  podcast, whether it's a peer conversation, whether it's an hour with
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  your coach or reading a chapter in a book.
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  Make time for your personal development.
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  Treat it like a client meeting.
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  And if you lead managers, give them the same hour and
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  defend it when things get busy.
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  Protect it. So here's a quick recap for you that I
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  want to cover. Number one, ban the corporate says speak.
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  Know or the executive says, know the why before you deliver
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  the what. Run a say, do, audit, and close one gap
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  this week. Close every loop within 48 hours.
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  Name your misses out loud and protect one hour of growth
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  each week for you and the leaders on your team.
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  Remember that offsite strategy from the top of the show?
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  The one that went nowhere, it didn't fail in the boardroom.
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  It failed in the gap between a decision and the people
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  who were asked to carry it out.
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  Trust is what fills that gap, friends.
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  And here's the good news. You don't need a new program
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  or a new budget to start.
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  You need a few behaviors repeated and repeated on purpose.
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  And by the leader your team sees every day.
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  That's you. Y O U So here's your challenge.
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  Pick one of the five actions this week, just one.
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  You don't need to do all of them at the same
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  time. Just pick one and do it before our next episode
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  next week in the leadership sandbox.
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  And then tell me how it went.
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  Message me on LinkedIn. You can find me there easy.
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  I read every message. I reply.
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  Unless you're trying to sell me something.
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  I won't reply. If this episode made you think of a
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  manager who's carrying a lot right now, I want you to
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  send it to them. If this episode made you think of
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  something you're carrying, I want you to sit down and write
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  it out. Because sometimes the most trust building thing that you
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  can do is let someone know they're not alone in the
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  sandbox of chaos that's in your workplace right now.
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  Sometimes the best thing you can do is phone a friend
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  and let them know, I see you, I hear you, I'm
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  with you. And here's a way to grow into your next
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  opportunity. And I want to thank you for taking time to
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  grow into your next level of leadership in the sandbox today.
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  I always love it when we get to spend time together,
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  challenging our beliefs, our limiting beliefs, and putting in place some
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  new habits, attitudes, beliefs, and expectations to transform the way that
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  we show up every single day.
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  I'm Tammy J. Bond. Thanks for joining me.
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  Make it a great day. God bless you.