Keeping Good Talent is a Matter of Trust

How well are you leading as Q2 draws to an end?

 Research is telling us that 26-40% of employees are ready to leave their current position. What? Even though it would appear we are well on the way to a new normal with states opening up, mask mandates lifting, and people returning to work - only to find they could be planning their exit? If that is not stressful enough, business owners are desperate to hire and the lack of great talent is an obstacle for them to grow their business and realize their 2021 strategic objectives.

Leadership is needed more than ever to weather this storm (or heatwave if you are on the West Coast!) Companies are settling for warm bodies instead of cultural fits. What they do not understand is they are now in jeopardy of compromising, thus losing their Top A players who will quietly leave in the wake of a diminishing culture. Leading the vision, the culture, and the people are your top priorities. If you run a business, relationship management is your #1 job and at the root of all relationships is the foundation of trust. You must trust your people and your people must trust you.

In our last newsletter, we introduced The Top 5 Drivers of a Great Leader which nicely fits into the acronym S.E.R.V.E. The first and most essential driver is Self-Awareness and if you missed the article, you can catch up by reading it here. Today, we are going after the second driver which is Extend Trust.

LEADERS GO FIRST

As the leader, you go first in relationships by extending trust. You assume all the risk in the relationship, therefore, be wise about how much you trust and how much you give; but still, you go first. Leaders must be both trusting and trustworthy which actually requires character, training, and commitment.

“The ability to establish, grow, extend and restore trust is the key professional and personal competency of our time.” - Stephen Covey

GROW TRUST

Once you extend trust, you then need to grow it. Being vulnerable is the key to growing mutual trust. The dictionary defines vulnerability as a state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed. Meaning, trust thinks “What I am sharing could be used against me, you could harm me, but I believe you will not.” Mutual trust answers back, "Not only will I not harm or attack you, but I will also defend you, I will have your back because we are in this together."

How well does your executive team trust each other?

TRUST IS NOT STATIC

Leaders must understand that trust with others is either growing or eroding, it does not remain static. You do not have trust with someone and call it good. It takes continuous effort and investment. You must keep pouring into your high performers and offering them advancement and growth. As a leader, you are the one who “sees” your employee as a person and then utilize all they have to offer. You create opportunities for them, you offer them skills training, you initiate conversations about their career advancement.

Thus, the problem of bad hiring shows up here, when we hire people who may diminish our culture we begin the process of destroying the trust we have built with our best employees. And as you know trust erosion is a very quiet event that you would never imagine was happening right before your eyes.

WHY TRUST BREAKS DOWN

In my 20 years of organizational development work, I can confidently report that, among two good-hearted people, trust breaks down 99.5% of the time because of miscommunication. That is why we recommend every leader and executive team member go through our Science of Self assessment process. Once you understand your personal communication style, motivators, and emotional intelligence and get your team trained as a group, trust issues are quickly highlighted and mitigated.

FELT SAFETY

In addition to building on Trust and Communication, extending trust also involves creating felt or psychological safety. When Scott and I were foster parents, we were trained in something called Felt Safety.  Dr. Karyn Purvis defines Felt Safety as, “When you arrange the environment and adjust your behavior so your children can feel in a profound and basic way that they are truly safe in their home with you." With that example in mind, leaders arrange the cultural environment so that their employees feel safe and guarded. Understanding your employees, listening to them, having empathy for them, believing in them, and seeing them as humans will quickly put you on the path to trust. There will be many times where you will need to put your Emotional Intelligence to work and know when to schedule a meeting, cancel a meeting, or buy someone lunch in order that they can feel safe and protected by you.

LISTEN with the 3 L’s

Lastly, one of the greatest tools a leader can wield is listening via our 3 L's model. The 3 L's are Listen, Learn and Lead with questions. It sounds basic, but it is profound, and while simple, it is not easy to do.  We have entire leadership development labs dedicated to communication and listening skills, so begin the habit now. Your family and future employees will thank you.

LET’S LAND THIS PLANE

If 26-40% of people are leaving organizations because of diminishing culture, leaders out of touch with employees’ needs, and a lack of skill development, can extend trust as the perfect place to start if you want to keep your top talent.  In order to extend trust, the leader must always set an example. The leader bears the responsibility to live up to the values that support the foundation of the company as they represent its culture and vision. If the leader doesn’t live up to the values of the company, great talent will go where they will feel the integrity of the company stands for something real, and true.  

Based on the first 2 drivers of a great leader...

How would you score your leadership skills?  What are 2 things you can do this week to extend and grow trust?

Did you know our BHAG or vision is that all of our clients win “Best Place To Work?” Not that they even have to officially apply for the award, but that is their heart that their employees would give them that reward. We are passionate about this and want to help you grow yourself, your culture, and more leaders in your organization. Reply to this email with what you need, be it: Hiring assessments, team workshops, culture development, leadership labs, etc. We love you!

Thank you for trusting me to be your coach,

Be the Best You Can Be Today!

Fun updates from the Shandel Group Family.

Just this week...Shandel and Scott have moved back to Reno, Nevada, and are super excited to be here. As you read in the last newsletter, we sold the dental practice in December of 2020. We left behind an amazing team and the best culture we could imagine when we decided to move forward. Scott’s last day was June 15, 2021. He is truly excited to take all the principles that he learned as a dental business owner and apply them to other companies, especially dental offices. If you have not listened to our podcast, check out Leadership DDS. Our next season will come out soon (aka after we have unpacked)!

Our solutions for Leadership Development have been in high demand. We want to help leaders create more leaders. We are also passionate about leaders leading great cultures. We offer certifications for DISC, DRIVING FORCES, AND EQ as well as group leadership labs in a variety of skills and competencies to get every leader no matter how experienced to their next level. Simply reply to this email for more information.

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