Employee Trust Is Rebuilt One Person at a Time

Before you ask employees to trust leadership again, ask what leadership has done to earn it.

Employees notice when executives say people come first, then make decisions that leave supervisors short of time, resources, or support. They notice when they raise a concern and hear nothing back. They notice when one leader promises change and another sends a different message.

Those experiences shape trust. Rebuilding it starts with executives aligning on what they value, what they expect, and what they will do when those values are tested.

Then the work becomes personal: one employee, one conversation, one decision at a time.

Listen to your employees. Ask what we can do to make their jobs more efficient, productive, and their work areas safer. Solicit feedback from supervisors an opportunity to speak honestly about the pressures they face. When someone raises a concern, acknowledge it, decide who owns the response, and report back on what changed. If you cannot make the change requested, explain why. Follow through consistently, especially when production pressures make it difficult.

That is how an employee begins to believe, “They heard me. My experience matters here. They took the time to follow up.”

Through The Humanistic Shift™, I partner with executive teams to begin this work together. We start by examining whether leaders share the same core values, definitions, accountability, communication, safety, and respect. We look at the gap between what executives intend and what employees experience. Then we set clear expectations for leaders and supervisors, create opportunities for honest employee input, and turn what we learn into actions employees can see and own.

My role is to help your leadership team have the conversations it may have been avoiding and to carry those conversations into the workplace with a shared commitment to follow through.

You cannot ask employees to rebuild trust on your timetable. You can give them a reason to reconsider, one kept commitment at a time.

Rebuilding trust begins with rebuilding trust among your executive table. Are you aligned on what it will take to earn your employees’ trust? A difficult question, and even harder to commit to rebuilding one employee at a time.

If your team is ready to find out, let’s talk. Visit davidawardsrspeaks.com or schedule a conversation.

David A. Ward Sr. | Founder, The Humanistic Shift™

Originally shared on LinkedIn