How to Measure Trust in Your Organization
Is there trust within your organization? Do you feel respect and transparency from your peers and above? If not, you are no stranger to the effects of an uncommunicative, unreliable team.
Based on a study done by Edelman, a “Trust Barometer” indicates that one in three people do not trust their employers. In the same study, it’s found that trust decreases the higher the position within the company. This highlights that individuals are more likely to trust their peers than their C-Suite executives. Unfortunately, the higher your position, the importance of trust becomes more salient.
So the question remains: how do you measure trust?
A company without a strong foundation of trust is more likely to have complications in their day-to-day activities. A negative working atmosphere will produce highly stressful and uncomfortable work environments. Employees will feel less inclined to think creatively, their energy levels will decrease, and reduced productivity will be inevitable.
In a trusting environment, a team of dedicated individuals will commit to getting great results together, as a single entity. There are more opportunities for personal growth, productivity improves and costs decrease. It has even been documented that individuals take less sick days when they feel empowered and energized by their environment and team members.
There are many causes when it comes to distrust in the workplace, one being substandard communication skills between coworkers. It is incredibly important that individuals listen to each other, in order to create a trustworthy and collaborative atmosphere. As servant leaders, we encourage people to listen to understand, rather than listen to respond. By doing so, you are extending respect to those around you, in demonstrating your understanding that what they have to contribute is valuable and important. It is imperative to encourage honest and open communication throughout your entire organization.
Where there is trust, there is a strong foundation for heightened participation, elevated employee morale and overall happier employees.
While Art Barter was introducing and implementing servant leadership into the culture at Datron World Communications, he created a Trust Index to help measure the level of trust within the organization, as well as the impact of the servant led culture.
With the help of Stephen M.R. Covey’s book The Speed of Trust, every six months during Quarterly Meetings, Datron employees would be asked two simple questions:
Do you trust your boss? Yes or No.
Do you trust management? Yes or No.
Additionally, the management team was asked another question:
Do you trust each other? Yes or No.
As this process continued, adjustments were made as trust improved. Originally, Datron employees would write their answers on an anonymous piece of paper that was submitted. As trust expanded within the company, employees felt more comfortable responding to the Trust Index with a show of hands. Over and above that, those who answered ‘no,’ felt safe enough to share what they needed from their superiors to improve their trust, and in front of the entire company! It may not have been an overnight change, but the process of rebuilding faith between employees is vastly important, and should not be rushed.
Measuring trust is not always an easy task.
It requires complete transparency and accountability. While using the Trust Index, Datron World employees were willing to hear “the good, the bad, and the ugly” in order to grow not only as individual servant leaders, but together as a community. Building and maintaining trust takes constant work and mutual respect between co-workers. Make sure you are making a conscious effort to trust and be trusted by the members of your team, and you will experience incredibly inspiring results.
To learn more about the Trust Index, click here to purchase The Art of Servant Leadership II by Art Barter.
Olivia Pence
OLIVIA PENCE has been a part of the Datron World Communications & Servant Leadership Institute Teams for many years, and has loved every moment of the experience. Olivia has worked closely with the Datron Charitable Fund, and believes that servant leadership can inspire the world. Olivia graduated from Cal State University, Fullerton with a BFA in Musical Theatre. Her rich background in theatre has helped her specialize in social media coordination, digital marketing development and creative content production.