How do I motivate them? The Ultimate.
The Australian author and business Mentor Peter Cook once told an audience I was in (to paraphrase), 'people don't buy from you because they don't trust you'. It is a harsh brutal assessment on why people may not do business with us, why colleagues don't buy into our ideas, and why people don't want to do what we instruct them to do. It may also be an underlying reason for our perceived lack of progress (or regression) over the last year or so. My observation is when we peel back all the layers of perspective, context and self-protective-thinking there is a lot of underlying truth to this.
Trust is the aspiration and answer to all. If trust is not felt in any form of relationship it may be impossible for connection, confidence, or love to exist. This message is ever present in literature, music, romcoms and sitcoms alike for generations. Man cheats on girl, girl leaves man. Friend betrays friend, friend cuts off friend. Boss lies to employee, employee leaves company (and vice-versa). I have no doubt we all have a few memorable experiences of our own like this and hundreds more unmemorable moments too. They are moments when credibility and connection are damaged. Trust tends to be tough to build and easy to destroy, or as Warren Buffet famously said, "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it..."
When we look at trust from a wider company view, the Roy Morgan Australia's Net Trust Score rankings always make for interesting reading. This quarterly report where thousands of consumers and investors are asked which brands they trust/distrust the most shows a snapshot of the corporate landscape through the eye of the population. In the most recent report (Roy Morgan, October 2022) Supermarkets and Retail dominated (as they have for the last few years) as people feel a sense of trust due to the staff that have 'turned up' to serve no matter how difficult global and local events get. Integrity and social consciousness also register on consumer's reasons for trusting brands. The most distrusted list is dominated by media and media associated companies due the mistrust people feel about what they are doing with our data amongst other reasons. Financial companies and banks are still distrusted but are not dominating the top 20 brands as much as a decade ago as they slowly and tentatively roll back some of the behaviour and policies that created such devastation in the 2010's. One special mention is for Harvey Norman, one of Australia's most successful retail brands. Over the past 12 months Roy Morgan's survey tells the story of how this brand slid down the trust scale the most - mainly due to the JobKeeper scandal and media attention that no doubt influenced this result. Airlines are beginning to become more trustworthy. Their handling of customers and staff during the Covid-19 crisis was not seen favourably and is starting to ease as 'business as usual' slowly eases the dark memories of mass layoffs and baggage losses (I said slowly, right!)
People distrust Harvey Norman as they feel the brand misused government relief payments through the JobKeeper program to boost company profits
Source: Roy Morgan Australia
Overall, there is a correlation between business performance and trust levels. When a brand is trustworthy then people are confident and comfortable to buy from them, work for them, and invest or partner with them. It is no different in our workplace relationships. One interesting observation aside to this is how much more trustworthy we think we are compared to how trustworthy we are perceived to be. The PwC Consumer Intelligence Series on Trust published June 2022 showed 87% of business leaders (C-Suite) believed consumers highly trusted their company. Unfortunately, only 30% of consumers surveyed agreed. There was also a 15% trust gap to employees where business leaders felt their company was highly trusted by their staff (84%) but in reality only 69% actually did.
Why is there such a large discrepancy?
One key reason is misalignment.What is valued by employees is not matching that of senior business leaders. Employees' top priorities includes 'treat employees well', 'provide a variety of high-quality products/services', and 'leadership admit mistakes quickly and honestly'. Business Leaders tended to prioritise transparent communications and corporate responsibility. These are important, but not as much weight is put behind them by consumers and employees. The cost of such misalignments is dramatic with 71% of employees saying they would leave the company when trust is breached, which is trending up as younger generations in the workforce value trust in their employer more than previous ones.
What then, can we look out for as leaders to enhance trust rather than diminish it?
Self-Serving Bias
It is a very rare thing for people to come into a conversation with the intention of creating a fight. Yet, interpersonal conflict resolution is one the most common skill people want to learn for their professional development. We find it easy to get into fights with each other, or to secretly disagree and resent each other. We do this on a daily basis in major and minor ways alike. We get into these rifts because we generally think we are right or doing the right thing. We feel our case is stronger or more important than others, or that our opinion is more valid than others. It is a stiff broad brush, but we generally act this way to protect our self-esteem and to basically feel better about ourselves. It is called self-serving bias. Initial studies into this begun in 1975 and has become a strong basis for how we see ourselves in any given situation. This phenomenon is why we can believe we are the reason for good stuff happening and exterior forces are the reason for bad stuff happening. This bias tends to be higher in narcissists and reversed in people with depression (i.e. 'bad things tend to be my fault, good things tend happen because of others').
This can be exacerbated when we layer the Dunning-Kruger Effect on top. This is another bias where we overestimate our knowledge and ability on a subject, particularly where our experience in a given area is low.
As leaders, self-serving bias can mean we see our point of view, decisions, and perspectives as the most truthful, important, and influential. Often, the reality is the team's collaboration, ideas, and talent may be more relevant and correlated to business performance. If we don't honour this we can creep towards taking credit for other people's work, dismissing people, and becoming the hero of our story. A sense of injustice can be felt by others and trust is lost or degraded.
Cosmetics Won't Do It
An interesting aspect to the PwC report was the point on social responsibility. When companies invest in programs and causes for the good of humanity this is undoubtedly a good thing. Johnson & Johnson invest in clean water projects and green energy projects amongst others (Michelle Shapiro, March 2017). Pfizer donated $40 million in medical and philanthropic grants to fight global health challenges surrounding Covid-19 (Pfizer Inc, July 2020). Starbucks has invested significantly into their employment programs where they have targets on hiring US veteran and military spouses and support the transition of service members back into employment (Starbucks Stories, October, 2020). All are admirable projects and are to be encouraged. But, the research shows that these acts do not do the job for us when it comes to trustworthiness. How we act and the decisions we make in our operation effect our employees and our customers. This is what they truly see - everything else is window dressing.
It is an important point to keep clear in our minds. We cannot throw money at the problem that is our reputation. We see this in Greenwashing and Sportswashing where companies/governments may be able to convince themselves and some others that they are trustworthy, but the veneer tends to be thin.
Greenwashing is when companies or governments investing in environmental causes to distract from unethical policies (here are some famous examples: Akepa, 2021). Sportswashing is where companies or governments use sport to enhance their reputation and distract from corruption or scandal. Famous examples include the German Olympics in 1936, the World Cup of Football 2022 in Qatar, and the rebel golf tour Liv Golf backed by Saudi sovereign wealth funds.
Investing in stories and good causes are not bad things, and in fact are truly life changing for many. But, they are very different to the thick stone which is our trustworthiness. It will not do our day-to-day work to build trust in our people, stakeholders, and customers. We need to do the work every single day - be true to our word, and deliver on promises if we are to build deep and sustainable trust.
Don't be a Survivor
In The Rhythm Effect I cited the research on South American sugar farmers where they tested the subject’s IQ at different times of the year. When they were poor compared to when they were less-poor (i.e. after harvest). The farmer’s IQ was significantly lower when they had less money in their bank account. It showed how our focus narrows to what is only in front of our nose when we feel danger lurking (ie. We get less smart when we are under pressure). This is why people generally make bad decisions, including how they act and how they communicate with people when business is going through tough times.
I think most of us can relate to this, as almost everyone has been ‘up against it’ at the beginning of their career, when starting a new job, or at the helm of a business. When ‘trying to survive’ is a chronic state, we tend to get into bad habits that do not serve us or our people (ie. employees and customers). We say and do things that become untrustworthy. You could argue this is a big reason why C-Suites think their companies are more trustworthy than they are as it is a high-pressure and highly political environment in which they operate where another day survived can feel like success.
The game as I see it is to build the skills to be able to find stability, be reliable, and then be engaging, respected, and eventually trusted. I call this the Leader's Journey where each ability feeds the next and where all (even the ability to survive) become a part of a leader's armoury to lead with grace and style through the toughest or weirdest challenges life can throw at us.
It is a commitment to habit and discipline. It is a journey that is not for all but all are invited. It is also a decision we can make and begin every day.
Building trust and creating a trusting environment and culture is at the pinnacle of difficult. It is the ultimate aspiration and the ultimate motivator. I believe we throw around the word 'trust' like a play toy without honouring the reverence or complexity of such a concept. To be trusted is a difficult and long-term game. This piece you are reading is merely a dot in the canvas of the subject, but my hope is it highlights the one attribute almost every human is craving in their workplace. I feel most professionals will give up bigger pay packets and larger bonuses for a deeper sense of trust in their colleagues and bosses. And, the opportunity to be mentored by someone to become more trustworthy themselves may be attractive in itself and strategically smart for one's career. When I reflect on the best mentors I worked under it is always the trust they instilled and built in me that sticks in my mind. When I reflect on the failures in my own career it usually boils down to the decisions and words I chose in the moment either out of desperation or stupidity that undermined the trust people felt in me and resulted in reputational harm.
If we work to create trustworthy strategies, habits, and communications we find our stories, arguments, business cases, and products will motivate people to buy-in-to us and our work like nothing else. This is the true peak of motivation and motivating your people to engage, empower, and perform in the moment and for a long time to come.
Banner Image Source: Human Rights Foundation
