A Matter of Trust

From what I’ve seen, many processes fail due to a lack of trust. It’s the underlying reason for shoddy communication, insufficient delegation and, ultimately, poor team cohesion. It’s also a vicious circle.

“I don’t trust you to get the job done.”

“I can’t get the job done because you don’t trust me.”

From a manager’s perspective, if you trust your team members, the instinctive and logical thing to do is to include them in the decision-making process. If you don’t trust them, you’ll try to do everything yourself. This obviously won’t work in the long run. You have to break the circle.

Discuss the parameters and constraints of the project up front. Let your team come up with solutions (and hacks, if necessary). This isn’t to say you should build a democracy, which is another recipe for failure. The goal is to instill a sense of ownership. Make a final decision that your team can accept — convincing is better than ordering. Everyone should be able to articulate the goals and success metrics.

You may have to force yourself at first. But it’s a positive feedback loop. The trust will come.