Trust

I just got back from book research interviews around the northeast. The companies I sat down with ranged in size from 16,000 to 50 employees and in scope from energy, manufacturing, to software development. Even with the different types of companies I learned from, there was a definitive common theme from my trip. They allow their people to make decisions. This makes them feel like part of something bigger than their job.

From what I’ve seen, you can look at employees in one of two ways:

1. Employees are lazy and don’t care about their company, their results, and their success. The only way to motivate them is to intimidate them. The only way to get them to produce is to regiment their day so it takes all the guess work out of it.

a. This style of management is prevalent in our country. And successful to a degree. With some ups and downs, people eventually do the work they are told to do. Yet, this management style is the reason so many people are zombies at work. They come in, do just enough to collect their paycheck, and go home. This style creates clock punchers.

2. The other way to look at employees is that they naturally want to be successful at what they do. That it feels good to perform, to contribute, and to make a difference.

a. Obviously, this is the methodology I subscribe to. And that is the style that company after company I’ve talked with for this book live by. And that is why their people perform above and beyond the job description. That is why these companies have grown to 250 or to 16,000 employees. Because motivated people produce creativity, quality, innovation, and most importantly, results.

Trust is the most important (and the hardest) thing executives and managers can give their people. I’ve seen small business owners’ companies hit the performance ceiling because they don’t trust their people. I’ve seen managers pull their hair out at the dismal performance of their team, but when I ask them what decisions their people are allowed to make on their own, the answer shadows their engagement level, zero.

Trusting people in any size business is difficult. If you’ve grown your business from 1 to 20 to 100 people, you have years and years of blood, sweat, and tears in the business. You don’t want someone else screwing up your baby. If you’re a manager, someone else’s mistake can make you look bad. But the best way to sustain your growth, profitability, or performance is to tap into the people you have on the road with you and let them do what they do best. Micromanaging leads to lack of motivation, which leads to lack of performance, which leads to bad things for all parties involved.

The goal for today is sit back and analyze yourself and your company. Do your people enjoy working for you? Do you trust your people to make decisions? Do they think you trust them to make decisions?