Welcome to Future of Work, Future of You. How often do you think of the term “trust” when it comes to your workplace? Trust is so critical when it comes to our personal relationships but we seldom think about the trust at work. Over the past 10 years of my professional journey, I have discovered that massive career growth rarely comes from just skills & knowledge but actually follows from deep trust that people place in you as an individual. In this issue, we explore the relationship between workplace trust & career. If you like what you read, don’t forget to hit subscribe. Hope you enjoy reading!
Photo by Alex Shute on Unsplash
Few months back, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who is a Director at a mid-sized startup. He was trying really hard to get promoted to Vice President & told me how he was slogging day & night to get that elusive VP promotion that will elevate him to the executive leadership team. Once done, his career will be sorted.
Out of sheer concern, I asked him - “what do you think is holding you back from getting that promotion?” He told me - “His boss promoted people who he can trust apart from being outstanding at work .”
I see most of my friends & peers slog equally hard at work leading upto the appraisal cycle to gain trust of their boss & not miss that tiny window where their next pay, promotion, project gets decided.
Many of them say - “X is a crucial month when all other employees put in extra hours to look good in front of their managers.” For all the hard work & contribution, it is a pity that such critical decisions come down to a couple of weeks where perceptions are built or destroyed.
But let's think about it.
Do people really build perception or make decisions based on a few weeks of data?
Rarely. In fact it is the exact opposite.
Most rational people give due time & consideration to build perception or make decisions. Because they want to justify to themselves why they took a certain decision. Any deliberate thinking comes from the subconscious mind which is always thinking slow & making judgments cautiously.
We all like to believe that our work output, contributions & performance is evaluated logically. Is it true?
Honestly, humans are irrational when it comes to managing other humans. We are governed by soft factors like personality, beliefs, values, familiarity & general comfort when dealing with others. Yes we try hard to convince ourselves that we are objective, fair & factual but that is hardly the case.
So when I think about that secret sauce that makes one human like another - the only fundamental factor is TRUST. It is often the most overlooked factor as no one likes to talk about it in the open.
I mean it. Imagine a manager sharing feedback with their employee that they didn’t get the promotion for lack of trust! It is far easier to blame it on lack of soft skills such as poor communication, low collaboration, limited team work, low engagement, etc. etc. Believe me when I say that trust is the elephant in the room. If you are looking for career growth, you have to address this before getting to anything else.
Human mind works by association & any individual or person that doesn’t meet the association framework is mostly rejected. Yes there are incredibly adaptive & servant leaders out there who welcome diverse personalities but they are far & few.
For ages, the corporate world has been riddled with words like “trusted lieutenant”, “trusted advisor”, “right-hand person”, “inner circle”, “favorite”, “go-to-person”. These are cliched descriptors to denote the massive trust these titles carry for the person holding these proxy roles.
Let me show you an experiment. Try doing it at your workplace (Feel free to report back results in the comments section!)
Find five people who you think are high performers & five people who are languishing at the bottom in your organization.
Ask them a simple question.
To the employee:
Do you think your manager trusts you 100% to get work done?
To their manager:
Do you trust person X 100% to get work done & deliver results?
You will inevitably get Yes for the high performers & No for the low performers.
You will say this is expected. Of course managers will never trust people who are underperforming. But you are missing the point. It works the other way around. In most cases, people underperform because they are never trusted with
More opportunities
More responsibilities
More projects
More resources
More encouragement
More feedback
More trust
Most employees & team members never get the right chance to demonstrate their skills & potential only because they are unable to build enough trust with their managers & leaders to get to a place where magic can happen to their career.
If you find yourself in a zero-trust situation:
I know this sucks. Seeing a peer get ahead while you wait in the trenches for recognition is never a good feeling. Try to identify the biggest bottleneck. A bad boss? A dying business? A doomed project? Try mending those burnt bridges with your managers & peers. Doing exceptional work to make them look good or turning up for them when they least expected you. Hanging out at lunch or going out together for a baseball game or evening drinks. Breaking ice is the key. It takes time but every person has their soft spot so you have to find that. Switching teams or assignments is another option to show your versatility & value. If nothing else works, it is a good time to pull up your aging resume.
If you find yourself in a low-trust situation:
This may feel stagnant. You are neither the rockstar nor the down-trodden in your team. You need that one breakout moment - A pivotal project or a marquee deal. Something that shakes your boss to turn around & look at you with a new lens as if you have finally arrived. Staying patient & getting good at your game is the key. You are close so just hang in there with eyes & ears close to the ground.
If you find yourself in a high-trust situation:
This is the time to make it count. You most likely carry high favor with your bosses & peers. Great projects, challenging assignments come to you automatically so makes the most of it. The only way such situations go south is if there is a reorganization, sudden downturn or massive screw-up. This is your “career honeymoon” so accelerate your growth while this lasts. You never know when the tides turn.
I must warn you that it is freaking hard to build trust with an individual. But the results of doing it are insanely compounding. Your skills, knowledge & work will likely give you steep but capped growth. But building & earning trust at your workplace will deliver exponential growth & open doors you didn’t know existed for you.
Start breaking down those trust barriers now & if you still think you can’t make any progress, just find another workplace where you can. No workplace is worth your time & career if building trust is not an option.
If you have a co-worker, manager, founder or even an entrepreneurial dreamer who needs to see this, please share. You may be helping them more than you realize.
Reach me at Tejaswi Gautam and let me know what you think about this issue. Are you ready for the future of work? See you next week!