7 Keys to Inspired Leadership

Recently I heard some interesting bits of information regarding trust in the workplace from Professor John Haliwell at the University of British Columbia. I think most of us realize that trust can be a huge issue and whether you feel trusted can mean the difference between loving your work and hating it.

In work environments that are union or non-union, trust is about the same … if it’s between colleagues. If it’s relating to management, the union workers have less trust; however, both sets of workers can still be as happy with their overall life.

Trust also has an impact on your economic level. If you place yourself on a scale of 1 – 10, as to how happy you are at work, you can move up 1/3 in income, if you move up one level in happiness. That, apparently, is what the research shows. So, how happy are you at work? Maybe to get that raise you just need to be happier!

Back to my title for this note. Do you people trust you as a leader? On that same scale of 1 – 10 where would you rate your “trust ability”? Now be very courageous, give your employees the opportunity to give you anonymous feedback on what the real picture looks like.

Professor Haliwell suggests that trust comes when you don’t look over someone’s shoulder. A high trust environment offers flexible work schedules while the same flexibility doesn’t work in a non-trust environment. Leaders who are low on the trust scale tend not to pay attention to the human aspect of the job.

Keep that last statement in mind when you’re hiring. It impacts employee retention more than we care to admit.