Joan Díaz, an executive coach in companies and Director of Corporate Business Development at the EEC, shared this reflection at the I Cycle of Coaching and HR Conferences of the European School of Coaching in Barcelona, to which company executives and HR managers are invited.
What builds trust at a business level? What does it enable, what does it lead to?
Trust is the cornerstone of change, as it generates a judgment of possibility, of hope. Today, there is a lot of talk about talent and innovation, and we can only develop and enhance these through trust. That is the new model for achieving transformative actions.
In a business structure, what happens if there is no trust between people, between departments? If there is no confidence that expected results will be achieved?
Beyond the relational cost, there is a very significant economic cost. If we don't trust a project or the people leading it, what we do and say, in other words, our behaviours, will be geared towards avoiding something we don't want rather than towards possibility and the achievement of extraordinary results. Without trust, it is very difficult for the team to go out and play to win the match; they will go out to settle for the bare minimum, and that has economic consequences.
In general terms, what is the barrier that prevents us from trusting each other?
Trust is a judgment, meaning an interpretation of a situation or relationship. The barrier appears the moment a person labels a specific situation or person as untrustworthy.
If someone lacks self-confidence, can they come to trust others?
It's possible that, while you may not yet trust yourself, you can still trust other people. Although your communication style, your level of commitment, the relationship you build, and your ability to coordinate actions with them will be limited. Not trusting yourself has another negative consequence, which is that it's unlikely other people will be able to trust someone like that. Our experience, at the EEC, is that this limitation has a negative impact on the results you achieve.
In an organisation, how is trust rebuilt?
As Stephen Covey would say with his trust metaphor, reinvesting in the emotional bank account of trust, being especially consistent between what we say and what we do.
When you say that trust is a conversation, what do you mean?
Trust is built or lost depending on the type of conversations we have, or even don't have, with ourselves and with others. For this reason, at EEC we believe it is one of the most important conversations we need to develop as individuals and professionals, and also as coaches. We also say that trust is an emotion, which predisposes us to one type of action and not another.
What can a coach do to help someone trust themselves more? And to be more capable of trusting others?
Coaches endeavour to help people understand and distinguish what trust is, a vital first step towards working on it. We encourage individuals to become aware of what prevents them from trusting and what consequences (positive or negative) this has on their personal and professional lives. Furthermore, coaches facilitate visualisation work and promote individuals considering what having self-confidence and confidence in others would mean for their lives and work. The moment one recognises that a barrier exists (and that this is a label or an interpretation), they can begin to ask themselves if they are willing to do something to rebuild trust.
You maintain that control is the opposite of trust. In what way are these two concepts opposed?
I like to use the analogy that trust and control are on either side of a scale. In the sense that if trust goes up, control goes down. And vice-versa, if control goes up, trust goes down. In this case, it is interesting to observe the economic impact that a control-based model has on organisations.
What happens in teams, in companies, when the boss *does* trust?
Trust is the foundation of any High-Performing Team, where the leader is the first to commit and set an example. To achieve results, these leaders create spaces of trust for their collaborators to empower and develop their capabilities, where communication and coordination of actions are key.
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