Standard of Trust Leadership: 3 Ways To Lead Change

The most effective leaders are not required have all the answers. However, they do need a great team and ask the right questions. It’s not about your knowledge, it is about the questions you ask of your team that will enable you to be a more inspirational and effective leader. During periods of change, a good precept is to engage employees proactively and frequently. Change is a team activity, and it is critical to shepherd people forward on a T.R.I.P.

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Traditionally, most leaders have focused their efforts on creating the perfect change strategy, while their employees attempt to fill the communication void with misleading information. Proactively engage your employees once you have questions about the requirement for change, as opposed to waiting until you have the answers. Not only will their input create a more knowledgeable end result, but they will be committed to the end result with you.
2. Build Talent Through Standard of Trust Principles 

Leaders must be open as to WHY a decision has been made, and not just WHAT the final decision was. This Standard of Trust practice creates explicit principles that you can utilize in future decisions.

Standard of Trust Guiding Principles Always Practiced

HonestyAccountabilityResponsibilityRespectSupportTrustworthiness
• Boundaries

These principles can also provide teams with a truth north compass to traverse uncertainty and produce their own decisions without seeking you out first for their orders. This will build on individual talents and relationship capital trust throughout the business.

Being an open, transparent, and visible leader during periods of change is critical in building the relationship capital from your team necessary for achieving the outcome. Employees will endeavor to not only understand what will change, but what will not change. As a standard of trust leader, you are uniquely qualified to communicate the context or share the story. Moreover, hold yourself accountable for the change program and be willing to concede when activities aren’t going as imagined. Your employees will most likely perceive this in any case, but your acknowledgment will build trust that you have a firm grasp of the situation. Lastly, track progress and expand your rate of communications. A standard of trust norm to use during periods of change is to communicate 3X more frequently with employees.

We are at an important inflection point. For most business organizations to survive and thrive, they must take advantage of this change by innovating. Innovation requires a business culture of purpose, values, and relationship capital. Many leaders have had the false belief that their organization’s culture was not a lever that they could effectively manage for higher levels of performance. Culture is often overlooked as a business driver because it’s an asset without a dollar value.

In our hyperconnected world of accelerating change, leaders need to listen, assess, and implement new operating models that leverage the innate purpose, values, and creativity of the individual and the team. Standard of Trust leadership is about transforming a business by transforming a business culture through purpose, performance, and relationship capital.