Leadership and Trust: How to Develop Yourself as a Leader
Leadership and trust go hand in hand—and a lack of trust is the biggest cost you can have.
Everything of value is built on trust. When a business fails, it’s not a leadership issue. It’s not a sales issue. It all comes back to trust.
Trust is always the core issue.
The main thing people ask in health care is, “can I trust you?”
But what is trust, exactly? And how can a leader use it to hire the right team? Read on to learn more.
The 8 Pillars of Leadership and Trust
Trust is a confident belief in a person, product, or organization. When you can confidently trust someone, everything changes.
When trust goes up in an organization, output, morale, retention, productivity, innovation, and loyalty all go up. Cost problems, suspicion, and attrition all go down.
A lack of trust is the biggest cost a hospital can have. Everything of value is built on trust.
So how does a leader establish trust with a candidate they want to successfully recruit? It all comes down to eight pillars.
Here are the eight pillars of leadership and trust.
1. Clarity
People trust the clear, mistrust or distrust the ambiguous. In an interview, the interviewee should be clear. They shouldn’t shift away from the question.
We have to trust people and move quickly in our Institute. Clarity always wins. Ambiguity and complexity don’t.
That’s a problem in many hospitals.
When we over-complexify something beyond what is needed, we lose clarity, which loses trust.
2. Compassion
Compassion is about showing care for one another. People trust those who care beyond themselves. It’s hard to follow someone and be accountable to someone if we don’t feel like they care beyond themselves.
3. Character
We trust those who do what’s right over what’s easy. Many organizations say they want to have specific values, but instead, they’re incentivized by what they allow.
Healthcare workers should have a character that is true to their values.
4. Competency
We trust those that stay fresh, relevant, and capable. We have to be competent in the area we want to be trusted. We must be continual learners, which means we have to learn constantly.
5. Commitment
We trust those that stay committed in the face of adversity. If you think a potential employee will leave at the first chance, you don’t trust them. People who commit themselves to things are people you can trust.
6. Connection
Can the candidate connect and collaborate with others? A hospital or organization must have employees who share resources for the betterment of all.
We must close the gap and connect.
7. Contribution
Organizations trust results and performance. You can’t just have compassion and character. You have to contribute results.
You have to help people and heal people—we have to strive for a good outcome.
8. Consistency
Sameness is trusted. The only way to build a reputation is with consistency.
Remember: people trust you for what you consistently do. If an employee is consistently late, their employer will trust them always to be late.
So how do we create a culture of trust as leaders? To develop a culture of trust, we have to focus on leadership development.
Hiring the right team is one thing—you must also focus on developing yourself as a leader to create that culture change.
Read on to learn more about developing your leadership skills to build trust and transformation in the workplace.
The 7 Components of Leadership Development
These seven steps can help create a culture change and develop you as a leader.
1. Whatever you’re trying to do has to be aligned with the core strategy
It has to be aligned, but you also have to show that alignment. For example, if one corporate initiative changes your HCAHPS score, you must show how the trust will help do that.
Whatever an organization does must align with its core initiatives, strategies, and values.
2. Senior leaders must champion each initiative
If there’s no buy-in from somebody that is a senior leader, earning and development won’t last.
3. You have to reinforce your strategy consistently
There must always be a process or a way for reinforcement to happen. You have to build your organization on trust, which you must reinforce.
If you want to effect change, you have to have a way to reinforce that consistently.
4. You have to provide a safe environment
You must give people a space to challenge and question the things around them. People must feel safe to be critical thinkers.
5. In culture change, there has to be a component of live or virtual interaction
People have to have a space where they can interact with others. You can’t just have online training and have employees go step-step-step—on their own without the possibility of responding to a live human expert or coach.
In learning and development, we know that the best way is in-person. The second best is virtual, and the third-best is hybrid.
6. Your initiatives have to be actionable today
If employees don’t see that the initiatives you’re putting out are actionable tomorrow morning, then culture change won’t happen. Because what do we know? Organizations don’t change.
Teams don’t change—only individuals change. When we can help an individual change, we can see a team change—and then finally, we can see an organizational change.
But it all starts with one individual.
7. Whatever you roll out has to help the organization and the individuals
As mentioned above, anything you roll out should help individuals.
Learning, development and culture transformation should help people as individuals—whether a nurse, a physician, an HR director or any other role.
It has to help the organization, but it also has to help the individual.
Leadership and trust play critical roles in healthcare. Without trust, you cannot work as a team in a cohesive unit. By following the above seven steps to culture change and following the eight pillars of leadership and trust, you can be on your way to hiring successful individuals and creating a team that can create a five-star patience experience.
Everyone’s a Caregiver: Providing Education for Healthcare Workers
Everyone's a Caregiver provides education to healthcare workers to improve their patients' overall experience. We understand the time constraints in today's workplace and have customized microlearning videos to help you gain the necessary skills to be a better, more positive healthcare worker.
We provide live training and speaking at events to help hospitals improve employee engagement and their patients' overall experience.
Contact us today to see how we can help, or click here to learn more.
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