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Competence – Trust Depends On It
Ask any consultant or practitioner about the importance of trust in the workplace and you’ll get a very consistent answer – it means a lot.
Trust is crucial, not just in the workplace, but in any environment where people need to ‘work’ together. Proof of this consensus view plays out every day in the workplace, in politics, in families, and in any other situation where relationships matter.
If you ask a second question – “what does it take to be trusted?” -you will likely get a variety of answers… anything BUT consensus. The variety of answers is more driven by the complex and multi-faceted nature of trust, not because some are right and some are wrong.
Over time, you will see my articles tackle many of the facets of trust. The cloud-space the articles will occupy will be well worth it. Trust is absolutely that important. This article addresses one key facet – competence.
A Simple Construct
In The Speed of Trust, author Stephen M.R. Covey (son of the late Dr. Stephen R. Covey… kind of like the sequel) presents a construct for understanding trust that is based on character and competence.
Simply put, if you aren’t good at what you do, it will be very difficult for others to trust you. You have to be good at your craft. Trust is about predictable and positive outcomes. It takes competence to produce predictable and positive outcomes.
Competence matters because we live in a highly networked and dependent world. Very few roles operate autonomously. Very few of us are masters of our own destiny. Our tasks are intertwined, and even if they are not, our behaviors affect the level of engagement of others. Our competence helps others. Our incompetence makes others do extra work, adding an additional informal quality control step.
Leadership Challenge
It’s not easy to be a leader. Not only do you have to worry about your own trustworthiness, but you also have to worry about the overall trust element of the culture. Keeping in mind that we are only talking about the competence aspect of trust, here are some things you can do to help enhance trust.
- Know your crafts… that’s right, crafts with an ‘s’. Since you are a leader, you have two of them… the work of your organization and the work of a leader. You must become a constant student of both.
- Set people up for success by putting them in roles they are ready to handle. Be honest about their strengths and weaknesses. Ensure that they build knowledge and skills to increase their competence. Putting someone in a ‘stretch’ role and having them figure it out on their own is a hope-based strategy that will cause a deduction to the trust account.
- Align your organization to ensure that all have consistent priorities and a common mission. Different agendas in a highly dependent environment can create the perception of incompetence even when it doesn’t exist. Ensure that everyone in the organization knows the priorities of the whole organization.
Trust Affects Results
Covey (the sequel) writes that increasing trust results in an increase in speed and a decrease in cost. He also says that results are a function of strategy and execution, but that trust is a multiplier for both.
Without trust, all effort spent on strategy and execution can be diminished – and even negated. Based on proof and intuition, this makes a lot of sense. That’s why trust is so important. And that makes leadership challenging.
Great point about competence as leader and about what business does. With the term “thought leadership” I am amazed to find leaders who just primarily “think” and hold court at meetings. Few trust that crowd .. Managing involves doing and action presupposes competence.
Thanks John. I guess there’s a difference between “thought leadership” and “thoughtFUL leadership”!
Steve, Love the topic of Trust – its the basis of everything. You mention Covey, are you familiar with the Reina’s Trust Model – there are three components – Transactional Trust (following through on agreements), Communication Trust, and COMPETENCE Trust! It’s great material and a lot on line as well as in their books….
Thanks Loren. I’m not familiar with them, but I took a quick cruise through their website. I’ll definitely spend some more time looking at their perspective.
[…] For more insight on this topic of trust in business, read Competence – Trust Depends on It. […]