2/3 of your colleagues don’t trust you
This morning my husband said sorry to me… for something that happened ten years ago, inspired by a conversation we were having.
‘Statements against interest’
I heard the term from Sheila Heen of the Harvard Negotiation Project, when she was on the Tim Ferriss podcast. It means saying something that puts you in a less advantageous position than if you had not said it.
This could be:
admitting you’ve done something wrong
saying sorry
owning—in front of your team—that you don’t understand something
The significant thing to know is that statements against interest build trust. If you tell me when you don’t understand something, I’ll trust you more when you say you do.
This is important because this week Tariq Rauf, founder and CEO at Qatalog, shared new data that shows 63% of us feel it’s harder to build trust remotely. Tariq worries we are sleep-walking into a great crisis of trust, burnout, and mental health.
The data also shows that:
66% of knowledge workers lack visibility of what others are working on
only one quarter feel that their contributions at work are recognised
How to build trust
💜 COMMUNICATION
Think about how you interact: are you building trusting relationships, doing what you say you’ll do, and demonstrating you care for others?
And remember from previous weeks: you need to be widening your network, not just talking to your insular bubble.
🏨 EVENTS
Are you creating events and occasions that build trust within your team?
Tariq and I spoke before the explosion of the Omicron variant, and he pointed to many organisations planning team away days and retreats with great regularity.
💻 TECH
How are you using shared platforms that make remote working easier?
(Now obviously Tariq would say that given he runs one. But that doesn’t mean he’s wrong.)
Tell me what else we need to do to cultivate trust in this more remote world. It doesn’t come easily. Especially for anyone raised in a world where “never apologise, never explain” was actually considered good advice.
**If you’re still wondering, my husband left his shoes at the bottom of the stairs, I fell over them carrying our second baby, she hurtled into the door jam opposite and dropped to the ground. She was—and is—absolutely fine. Now we just need to revisit the time he put our first born’s car seat into a gently sloping escalator and she rolled down the hill…(before you all call social services she was also unscathed, although to this day I still replay it on slow-mo).
Next week:
The big reveal of the first round of my research into the winners and losers of the new ways of working… bosses are feeling the heat. Based on interviews in law firms, banks, management consultancies, telecoms, tech, energy and a few more.
Christine
