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.....Building Trust
by Donna Deeprose
ASSESSMENT:
1) When you delegate to an employee, do you usually:
Assume the person can do the job with little supervision from you. Assume the person needs careful instructions and close monitoring. Assume the person can do the job, but monitor carefully just in case.
2) When upper management announces a new strategy, do you:
Hold back your full commitment until you see it's real and not just another flavor of the month. Suspect it will fade or fail soon, followed by business as usual. Embrace it.
3) If someone you worked with took credit for your share of a project, would you:
Campaign to get the credit you deserve and discredit the other person. Try to avoid working with the person again. Act as if the person had unintentionally misspoken.
4) If you were on a team with someone who performed poorly, would you:
Refuse to work with the person again. Give the person a second chance if you were asked to work together again. Work with the person again only if you knew there would be close checks on the person's performance.
5) If you were told company information in confidence, and you thought others really needed to know it, would you:
Tell others, breaking the confidence for the greater good. Keep quiet even though it could do harm to other people. Look for another way to spread the information (e.g. finding another source whom is willing to share it openly).
6) If you made an agreement to help someone in another part of the organization and then got an opportunity to work on a more important project, would you:
Stick to your agreement, giving up the better opportunity. Get a higher level manager to explain to the person you agreed to help that your time is necessary for the new project. Switch to the new project.
7) If someone agreed to help you and then backed out to work on a higher profile project, would you:
Avoid the person in the future. Feel betrayed and spread the word that the person is not to be trusted. Feel disappointed but understand why the person made that decision.
8) If upper management released information about the company's finances and future that you thought was unrealistically optimistic-maybe even misleading-would you:
Pass it on to your employees, giving it your support despite your misgivings. Explain your misgivings to your employees when you pass on the information. Bring in your boss to announce and explain it.
9) If trusting someone else led to negative consequences for you and your employees would you:
Remind yourself to be less trusting in the future. Blame yourself for letting the person hoodwink you. Make sure your employees and your boss know whose fault this really was.
10) If you made a mistake that led to negative consequences for yourself and others, would you:
Admit frankly to the mistake. Admit to it and explain the mitigating circumstances. Look for a way to explain it without taking blame. Trust is a critical underpinning of every organization where people are willing to take risks, try new ways of doing things, and commit to giving their best. Here's a quiz to assess your style for handling situations where trust is at stake. For each question, choose the response that comes closest to how you would behave. After you've taken the quiz, you'll find tips, tailored to your style, for building trust between you and those you work with.
Accepting... taking people at their word and expecting the best Doubting... expecting the worst. Protective... living by the motto, 'Trust but verify.' For the 10 situations that follow, choose the approach that's closest to how you would behave.
Your answer...
