The Triangle of Trust and Respect

Trust and Respect in an Organization

If an organization is lacking trust and respect then leadership, group initiative and creativity suffer. A manager has to provide an environment to develop this through straight talk, listening and making commitments.

The Howard Jackson Model for systematically building trust and respect is a repeatable series of steps that build on from each other in sequence to establish better collaboration.

At the bottom of the pyramid one starts with Straight Talk, and move through the steps of Listening for Understanding, Making Commitments, being Reliable, creating Trust, and then finally earning Respect.

Straight Talk

Open and direct communication is the first building block for trust and respect.

Straight-talk is the product of thoughtful caring relationships built upon trust by people committed to looking out for one another’s success. It entails much more than let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may candor and blunt start-to-finish honesty. And, it’s not brought about by cat-and-mouse, testing-the-waters conversation that evolves into a tell-it-straight, see if you can get the other person to reciprocate discussion. Straight-talk is a caring, other-sensitive, candor-on-demand, loyalty-producing, intimacy-escalating, give-and-take relationship leading to enhanced personal and organizational productivity.

Listening for Understanding

Focus your attention on understanding the meaning behind what people are saying. There is a big difference between waiting for your turn to speak and really listening. Hear, Understand, Interpret, and then Respond.

Organizational Commitment

The concept of organizational commitment refers to a person's affective reactions to

characteristics of his employing organization. It is concerned with feelings of attachment to

the goals and values of the organization, one's role in relation to this, and attachment to the

organization for its own sake rather than for its strictly instrumental value. As a positive

outcome of the quality of work experience, the concept can be regarded as a factor contributing to subjective well-being at work.

Be clear about what you will do. Agree on the What, By When, By Whom, and How steps. Communicate your intentions and stick to them.

Reliability

Do what you say you will do without fail. If circumstances have changed and it no longer makes sense to do what you said you would do, communicate back and explain why, and discuss and agree on the new steps.  Follow through over-and-over, be reliable, unfailing, dependable.

Trust

Trust as a common word in ordinary language retains much of that meaning when

employed as a concept in social science. It refers to the extent to which one is

willing to ascribe good intentions to and have confidence in the words and actions of other

people. This willingness will in turn atffect the way in which one behaves towards others.

Trust between individuals and groups within an organization is a highly important ingredient in the long-term stability of the organization and the well-being of its members.

Trust results from the firm belief that another person can be relied upon. Trust is the result of straight talk, making sure you understand and are understood, and keeping confidences as well as commitments.

Respect

Although there are many levels of respect, the respect that follows trust leads to deep esteem for another person. We value their thoughts and input, and we know we can count on them because they have proven themselves out to us.

"Managing with Respect" is the way people put the company values into action.

It is creating an environment where people feel free to offer suggestions, contribute ideas and make contributions to the organization.

"Managing with Respect" creates an environment where people genuinely care about each other and work well together to reach their full potential.

The "Managing with Respect" principles are:

- Communicate Effectively

- Give and Seek Feedback

- Value Unique Contributions

- Promote Teamwork

- Set the Example

Establishing trust and respect can build tremendous support for goals, and likewise losing trust and respect puts us back at the beginning and the process has to start again.

Christiaan Janssens
Executive Coach
CRO @ Spa Akwa Belgium