"Trust me bro"
Every company wants their people to work hard
Seems like a no-brainer. And of course you do too. So read on. :)
From what I can see, there are 2 major components that people require before they start to put in a lot of real work, not just counting hours on a chair.
Your vision and skills
For example, do you know what you’re talking about? Are you good at your job or you’re just all talk? Are you setting people in the right direction? Can you see the future, is the vision going to be correct, are we going to be able to take advantage of it?
This is quite straightforward. Of course I’m not going to follow an idiot. And since leaders are required to pitch ideas very often, they are quite used to having to pitch the future to people. Which is why we sometimes conflate “leadership” with “visionary”.
The thing is, it’s easy to fake seeing the future, because no one knows for sure, so there’s no real way to verify.
There is trust in your vision, and there’s trust in your skills. When people trust in your vision, they are going to do the things you want, in a way they think is best. If you tell them you want it be done in a specific way, they’ll only do it if they trust in your skills.
For example, in my companies, I used to be getting a lot of pushback when suggesting process that I’ve seen tried-and-true.
The more skills I show people and the more I get people to acknowledge me as a good engineer, the easier it is to get people to follow my process. Everything becomes much smoother when your skills are known to deliver.
Do you have my back?
This is the second component, which I think is also extremely important… People are going to ask themselves this: Do you have my best interests in mind? When we start to make money, are you going to screw me over? Businesses screw people over on a regular basis, and then turns around and say “it’s just business”. Well, it’s no wonder people don’t give work their best shot.
Surprisingly, this is something most leaders are stumped on. It’s actually quite hard being the champion of people, when your most pressing thing that is always top of mind is making money, revenue, profit. I’m not saying leaders are scums, no definitely not. You have to understand that the incentives of the company is in direct competition with the incentives of the people. A very simple example would be, if each worker is given a raise, the company’s profit would be hurting. Very simple to understand that this is something CEOs have to weigh at the back of their mind when they set your salary.
So whenever I see people talking about their employees not working their hardest, these 2 things normally come to mind right away. Vision, and trust. And very often trust is something that is lacking, and that you can improve.
No, you don’t have to give people raises. In fact money does not solve trust problems.
Improve trust
Just think, how can I show people that I have their back, publicly.
You want to look out for opportunities to show people that you care.
Go to events that they invite you to, even if it’s out of the way. Give thoughtful gifts. Tell people to take breaks. Get them coffee. Tell them to take the day off if they seem to be having a cold.
There are tons of ways to show you care, and that directly translates to your company’s bottom line.
You want to also be as transparent and fair as you possibly can. Otherwise, you’re rewarding people who thrives on stealing credits and only appearing busy.
Avoid eroding trust
Be aware of things that could undermine your credibility. It is hard to avoid entirely, but keep in mind. Here are a few possible things.
Hiring the wrong people. The wrong people can really screw up a company’s culture and delay a lot of work, and creating even more unnecessary work. Be very careful that the people you hire are the right ones.
Pivoting too damn much. Pivoting is necessary, but it is stressful to the people having to do the actual work. You better have a good reason to pivot, and you’ll want to give people the right motivation for each pivot. If you’re just pivoting because you’re not doing enough research, people will understandably be pissed.
Telling people to work on something and then not use it entirely. This is something I get a lot, and it is mostly about me not communicating to people why it is not being used. Could be a lot of reasons, but be transparent and tell people why and that you really appreciate their time working on it.
Avoid killing trust
On the other hand, you also want to be very careful of the things you say.
Words travel, and they travel fast, far and wide in the age of social media. As a leader of a company, it is easy to mistake what we think with what should be said out loud. Remember: the company’s incentives can be opposite of the incentives of your people. Things that are good for your company might not be so good for your people. And ironically, things you think are good for the company will only serve to hurt you, if said aloud.
For example I used to believe that a business should be able to operate without depending on anyone. This is a popular mantra, “Anyone is replaceable”. And really I do think it’s true, especially in business.
From the POV of business operator, we need to be sure businesses still run smoothly even if any disaster should happen.
However, I don’t think this is something you say publicly.
I have learned that this phrase, no matter how true it is, screams that you do not have people’s back. It tells people you are going to replace them at the drop of a hat, that you don’t have their interests at heart. So there is no incentive for people to try their best for you.
It takes a long time to build trust, but no time at all to kill it. And yes, “we are all replaceable, but let’s do the best we can to stick together”.