I think this is a tricky subject, and a really important one for an organization.
Senior and executive management have a huge effect on the culture of the organization, especially one that is built on a highly hierarchical structure.
When it comes up that staff have lost (or never had) faith in their leadership, what can those leaders do to change it?
These are four behaviors that I think can lead to situations like this:
- Lack of honesty in staffing changes (internal hiring, promotions, temporary assignments, etc)
- Exhibiting a cynical attitude during meetings, presentations and staff interactions.
- Back-handed comments about their colleagues in front of staff.
- Being disconnected from middle-management, not recognizing a manager’s job well done (this trickles down to staff level).
The damage caused by these types of behavior can be hard to undo. It takes time, but these behaviors need to stop before trust can be rebuilt.
I asked on Twitter earlier today, “What are some things Sr. Managers / Directors can do to gain trust from their staff?”
One response I received from @brianjbradley was:
@RickWeiss honesty, knowing their names, empathy, being genuine
I think these are definitely a few things Senior Managers can do to start down the road towards trust.
Now the hard question is; what can an organization do if Senior Managers are genuinely cynical, unhappy, backstabbing people?
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