Pirates, Tomatoes, and Trust: 8 Simple Rules for a More Welcoming Workplace

TRUST. Your workplace needs it. Over 90% of executives think building trust impacts their bottom line.

But does your current working culture actually create trust between you and your employees? The answer might surprise you. In fact, only 21% of U.S. employees strongly agree that they trust the leadership of their organization.

So, what defines the right workplace culture — one that breeds trust and is rewarded with efficiencies in turn? These are my eight simple rules for creating a more trusting workplace, each tirelessly refined during my years as a strategic coach to some of the world’s most successful leaders.

1. Practice what you preach.

Working as a mascot for a Disney-owned theme park is no easy task. There are a number of strict rules regarding park etiquette for the costumed employees, including everything from staying in character to no eating and no pointing. In some cases, these rules likely make the job more difficult for everyone involved, but park executives believe it is an essential step in creating the magical environment guests have come to expect. To that end, a large portion of these rules apply to every Disney employee walking the park grounds.

If you have a vision for a more trusting workplace, don’t assume that your team members understand it. Don’t assume your team members already know best practices, or that they immediately see the value in what you are creating. Instead, demonstrate that value everyday by holding yourself to the same high standards you hope to carry into the future. Let your employees see the real benefits of a better working culture, and the rest will follow.

2. Depend on your team — not yourself.

Imagine you’re a legendary pirate. In your most daring feat yet, you’ve made your way onto the deck of a first-rate naval vessel in the dead of night. The ship is sitting in port, and you plan on stealing the three-decker straight from the harbor.

There’s just one problem: You can’t hope to pilot this ship without a crew that you trust. You might spend a few frenzied minutes trying to do it all yourself, but you’ll inevitably end up drifting aimlessly. Now you’re a sitting duck, and you’re destined for the gallows.

To create a trusting workplace, you need leadership that empowers your team members and understands how essential they are to ANY progress. Micromanagement is the opposite of such empowerment. No matter the original intention, micromanaging behavior quickly becomes a clear indication that you do not trust your team to succeed in their assigned roles. Conversely, the leader that puts faith in the entire team instills every employee with confidence and energizes overall engagement from start to finish.

3. Remove fear from the room.

George Eliot and George Sand had quite a bit in common. They shared the same first name. They both lived during the Victorian Era. They were both the authors of an immortal literary masterpiece. Also, they were both actually women writing under male pseudonyms. Mary Ann Evans and Amantine Dupin were bold and impressive intellectuals, but the male-dominated world of 19th-century publishing could be very unforgiving. In that hostile environment, fear and anonymity were the logical result.

85% of executives report that fear prevents or stifles innovation within their organization, and every leader has a story about a worthwhile risk that passed them by. The ideas and individual efforts that evolve your organization can come from anywhere, so you need a working culture that is open to those possibilities.

4. Plan for everyone’s evolution.

A friend of mine recently tried his hand at growing tomatoes. He is a very thorough and scientific person, so his goal was to create two long lines of perfectly pristine tomatoes. He painstakingly monitored and adjusted his soil to what he read were the ideal conditions, then replicated those conditions for every plant. Still, his success was varied — some beautiful tomatoes and plenty of stinkers. Ultimately, he learned one invaluable lesson that your local farmer already knows: Everyone grows, but not everyone grows the same.

Your personal development plans should involve everyone, focus on the positive, and begin with a simple conversation. An open-ended dialogue allows you to hear the needs and ambitions of the individual from the beginning. Likewise, focusing on an individual’s strengths in lieu of their weaknesses means a more positive outlook and more growth-oriented takeaways.

5. Don’t look away from the mirror.

This time, let’s imagine you’re a school bus driver. You spent years of your life being a driver in general, then more years learning how to handle a large bus and enact any number of safety measures. Then, suppose all that knowledge and awareness vanishes in an instant. You’re now the captain of a 24,000-pound vehicle filled with passengers and traveling at over 50 miles per hour. WIthout the right mindset, your potential to protect rather than destroy has been completely inverted.

Taking on any leadership position is a huge responsibility, and these roles understandably demand a great deal of self-awareness and self-improvement. A school bus driver can never let up on their safety considerations and physical awareness, and an executive can never stop evaluating their impact on their employees. If you want to create a trusting workplace, you can’t be afraid to continuously look in the mirror and ask yourself how your leadership is serving the organization — and how it might do better.

6. Don’t just lead — listen.

What month of the year has 28 days? “All of them.” What has many keys, but can’t open a lock? “A piano.” What goes up, but never comes down? “Your age.” In many ways, riddles are designed to remind us that we’re never listening quite as intently as we think we are. In fact, the average person can only remember around 50% of a conversation immediately after the conversation concludes. On top of that, it’s estimated that up to 70% of employees are affected by poor listening skills. Of course, the other side of the coin is that every employee wants to be heard.

If we aren’t engaged in active listening, we can sometimes fail to hear our employees when they speak up. Such a failure greatly erodes trust. On the contrary, listening intently to what is being said by your employees can build stronger relationships and create a more trusting workplace. When you actively hear the wants and needs of your employees, you gain invaluable insights into your team and its overall well-being.

7. Always be honest, no matter the news.

In the midst of the American Civil War, President Lincoln used his now famous words from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to comfort a country in turmoil. The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt declared war on Japan and outlined a path to peace. Mere moments after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath of office and reassured the nation that a successful change of power had taken place.

Sharing difficult news is… well, difficult. And being a leader during those times is daunting, to say the least. No one wants to be the executive attached to large-scale layoffs, deep budget cuts, or poor performance reviews. However, it is these moments of honest confrontation that often define a leader’s legacy. John Kenneth Galbraith, former U.S. ambassador to India, put it like this: “All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common… the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time.”

A successful leader never shies away from honesty, even when the going gets tough. In this way, they win the respect of their team members and create a more trusting and accessible working environment.

8. Never stop showing your appreciation.

B.F. Skinner is one of the most famous psychologists associated with the ideas of positive reinforcement. Many of his experiments are testaments to the sheer strength of such conditioning — from guiding children through educational lessons via a “teaching machine” in the 1920s to getting pigeons to help target airborne missiles during World War II. The basis for all these experiments was observable action: “Can positive reinforcement coax out this specific behavior?” More often than not, the answer was yes.

When employees were asked what motivates them to go “above and beyond” at their organization, three of the top five responses were some version of positive reinforcement. People want to be acknowledged for a job well done, and showing sincere appreciation for everyone’s efforts creates more trust and positivity within the workplace. Intrinsic motivation is nothing to scoff at, and it should also be cultivated at every opportunity. But, a successful leader understands that an uplifting working culture needs more dynamic moments of motivation to perform at its very best.

Written by Dr. Sam Adeyemi.

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