Managing Your Way Through Change In Your Organization: Speed Of Trust

In my last post, I talked about finding comfort among other entrepreneurs when managing your way through change.   In this second of a four-part blog post, I’d like to focus on a very powerful word, Trust.   In particular, I’m referring to trust among leaders within your company.    During times of change, one of four best-practices that I employ is leaning on my leadership team.
Lean On Your Leadership Team – You find out real fast during times of change, who on your team shares your vision and trusts your leadership.   You want to talk about separating the herd?  Just implement something new and see what happens.
Recently, we experienced some employee turnover at one of our three locations.  Most of the turnover was by attrition, a result of changes needing to occur and brought upon by our continuing culture shift.   Nonetheless, even when change is necessary to catapult the company to the next level, it still requires energy.   Many times, it also creates a certain level of uncertainty and anxiety among employees.   As the leader, there’s no reason why you should go it alone and weather these changes by yourself.
You’ll find the strength to push forward when you surround yourself with competent leaders.    During the couple of weeks of our recent bout with turnover, I remained in close contact with my leadership team who would give me a constant reading on the pulse of our company’s culture.  One by one, I would receive a phone call or email from my leadership team members reporting in for their daily “check-in”.   Every day, while they checked the pulse of the tribe they managed, they also made sure to check my pulse.  There’s real power in having high trust within an organization.   It was comforting to know that they were available and prepared to have any necessary conversations to keep the tribe in check.
Having high trust among your team members allows everyone to move quickly through times of change.    A book that taught me how to build trust amongst all team members and that I still reference today is titled, Speed Of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything by Steven M.R. Covey.     In the book,  Covey outlines 13 behaviors of trust-inspiring leaders, such as demonstrating respect, creating transparency, righting wrongs, delivering results and practicing accountability.   It’s one of those core books that every entrepreneur must have in his or her arsenal.
What about you?  What are you doing in your company to build trust?  Have you had a major change in your business recently? How did you deal with it?
Next week, I’ll share my third practice for staying focused during times of change.