Research shows that the effectiveness of a leader to “land” the business future proofing transformation plans hinges on ‘trust and credibility’. If you want to accelerate your impact as a leader, the level of trust you create is the key to increasing your velocity and effectiveness.
To lead others, you must first gain their trust. The following words are an integral part of the foundation of building that trust:
“I’ve thought this through…I’ve thought of the business, the customers, the team, and you!”
Any team of people that needs to be convinced of a new direction and strategies for the business will probably not follow without trust. If effectively leading and landing change is really about influence (and, by the way, effectively leading and landing change IS about influence), that influence can only come from someone who trusts in your intentions, judgement, decision making, and in your character.
Character, which is the moral and mental qualities distinctive to an individual, is important. It’s important because good business judgement and decision making are not enough and they don’t exist in a vacuum; gaining agreement means showing your character … your true character, your authentic self.
When times are tough…and, let’s face it, things are going to get VERY tough…people want to know who you really are. And not in a press release or bio page, even with the number of social media platforms out there today, actions still speak louder than words, and people will be able to see who and what you really are through them.
So, what are the actions you can take to build trust and inspire action? What rock solid connections can you make with your team, to establish yourself as an authentic and trustworthy leader?
Please carefully consider these words as a central part of your message. Whatever the subject at hand, when you discuss your vision, you must convey the following:
The words: “I’ve thought this through…I’ve thought of the business, the customers, the team and you…”
If it’s convincing, people will trust and follow you. If it’s not, your change agenda is a dead duck!
We’ve learned from the impact of the pandemic (and what’s to come from the economic crisis), no-one can accurately predict every aspect of the future. Yet a leader has to have a vision that is clear, concise and believable. In other words: a trusted vision of the future…and a robust and detailed implementation plan that your people have helped put together.
As you aspire to inspire, and to create new outcomes with, through and for others, you’ve got to be able to articulate a short-, medium- and long-term view of the situation – and the organisation’s ability to deliver it – in a credible way.
How Sewells can help
The improvements in performance and results which our clients always experience, having followed the principles behind our culture change based business improvement programmes, are breath-taking; here are just some examples …
- As a result of our work with an organisation in the manufacturing industry, they saw their productivity increase by 158% in 18 months
- Another organisation, this time in the engineering industry, increased profits by £1.2M … after breaking even in previous years
- After working with an organisation in financial services their turnover increased from £148M to £352M over a two-year period
This could be you this time next year … if you want to create lasting culture change in your organisation, please contact us…give us a call 01244 681068 or email us – we’re here to help.
