Have you seen the Gallup survey about trust and engagement? It showed that the chances of an employee being engaged are 1 in 2 if they trust their bosses to keep their commitments, but only 1 in 12 if they don’t trust their bosses to do that.
What a HUGE difference that trust makes!
Then there’s the New York University study that showed higher customer service and sales results when employees themselves feel trusted—not by the customers, but by their managers and colleagues. In short, those who feel trusted to do their jobs do those jobs better.
This is why Stephen Covey calls trust “the new currency in the new global economy.”
But trust isn’t something you can insist on, and it’s not something you are entitled to just for showing up. Trust has to be earned and demonstrated. And if you want to rock at your job by earning trust, keeping your commitments should be Job One. There’s no better strategy to earn and deserve trust.
No one can keep 100 percent of the commitments they make. We are always at risk of being a little bit out of integrity. But do everything you can to be on the extreme upper end of that continuum.