Building Trust & Leading People. - Performance Partners

_{As a manager or people leader, if you want people to give of their best when working with your business, it’s crucial that you understand there’s certain needs that must be met for people before they will give that discretionary effort, and work hard for you.}

Very often, managers and leaders just assume that people should work hard because they are paid to work hard. That is fine up to a point, and will more than likely get you compliant workers who clock in and out and work fairly well. The experience of their work colleagues and customers who deal with them may not be so memorable however.

Open Communications & Leadership.

People who work for you have certain expectations such as a high level of honesty and integrity, the need for work with a bit of meaning in it, to be treated with respect for who they are as a person, and for what they contribute. In addition, being trusted, and being permitted to communicate opinions and contribute ideas, are also known as highly important to people who will work for you in an energetic and motivated manner.

If you are doing some of the above, it is more likely, you have people who will work almost as hard when you are not there, as when you are there, the discretionary effort piece.

Building Employee Engagement.

There are of course needs that are present in all people, which mean they either feel that certain core needs are met in the workplace, and that they are not. Ones that come up in the Trust Inside and Employee Passion surveys we facilitate in Ireland and the UK for clients, include:

Keeping Commitments and doing what you said you would do
Being Respected
Gaining Recognition, in the way they would like it
Receptivity and being open to hearing the truth
Disclosure and feeling ok to disclose at the level of comfort and expression
Straightforwardness and saying it as it is
Honesty and knowing that we are an honest group
Seeks excellence and doing our best in all of our work

This list above is a good list, but one that is hard for leaders and team members will struggle to score high on at all times. However, we do need to strive to be aware that these are core needs that people have, at different levels. As Leaders and managers of people, we need to strive to understand this and to act upon it, in our own personal development.

Author

Peter O’Connor is the MD of Performance Partners Ltd, a Management, Leadership, Sales and Personal Development Facilitator & Trainer, based in Ireland, who works internationally.
Peter can be contacted peter(at)performancepartners.ie or on 353-1-2402255.

_{The views expressed in this article can be brought to fruition through application of the Surveys, provided by Performance Partners, as Associate partner with Integro leadership Institute.}

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