Humour me today, dear readers. A little anecdote, about trust in the workplace, sometimes illustrates the point better than any theory can…
I was speaking at a conference last week (more to come on that shortly!) at Exhibition Place. While on break, I decided to walk down to the water. While I was there, I did something I never do. I handed my cell phone over to a stranger to take my photo (for a blog post… more to come on that soon too!).
For those of you who don’t relate, I make it a rule to not hand my cell phone off to strangers for photos, not as much for the monetary value, as for the confidential client contact details and related email and text messages.
But this time I did. Why was today different?
The woman handed me her phone first! She was running and needed photos for a fitness challenge she was doing (which looked very cool, by the way! so congrats my friend wherever you are). Since I was already contemplating the need for a photo and wasn’t exactly thrilled with my selfies, I handed my phone to her and asked her to reciprocate!
It’s human instinct to trust those that trust you.
There’s a lesson in practice management here.
A common issue that comes up with lawyers, accountants and architects leading at various levels, is gaining trust from their teams. Well today, instead of thinking about what you could do to earn your team’s trust, ask yourself a different question. Do you trust them? If not, why not? And how can you take your trust up a notch? If there are real professional, performance or accountability issues, what can you do to address them? They will feel the change, no matter how small a step you take.
While there are many other aspects of trust in the workplace, following through on promises and such, this may just be one of the most honest ones.
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