Trust creates joy and a better bottom line.
That’s the perfect summary for – and reason to care about – Paul Zak’s HBR article “The Neuroscience of Trust.”
Employees in high-trust organizations are more productive,
collaborate better with their colleagues, and stay with their employers longer than people working at low-trust companies. They also suffer less chronic stress and are happier with their lives.
Zak has identified eight behaviors that foster trust:
Recognize excellence.
The neuroscience shows that recognition has the largest effect on trust when it occurs immediately after a goal has been met, when it comes from peers, and when it’s tangible, unexpected, personal, and public.
Induce “challenge stress.”
When a manager assigns a team a difficult but achievable job, the moderate stress of the task releases neurochemicals that intensify people’s focus and strengthen social connections.
Give people discretion in how they do their work.
Allow employees to manage people and execute projects in their own way. Being trusted to figure things out is a big motivator. Autonomy also promotes innovation, because different people try different approaches.
Enable job crafting.
When companies trust employees to choose which projects they’ll work on, people focus their energies on what they care about most.
Share information broadly.
Openness is the key to engagement. Organizations that share their “flight plans” with employees reduce uncertainty about where they are headed and why.
Intentionally build relationships.
Neuroscience experiments show that when people intentionally build social ties at work, their performance improves. A Google study similarly found that managers who “express interest in and concern for team members’ success and personal well-being” outperform others in the quality and quantity of their work.
Facilitate whole-person growth.
High-trust workplaces help people develop personally as well as professionally. Numerous studies show that acquiring new work skills isn’t enough; if you’re not growing as a human being, your performance will suffer.
Show vulnerability.
Leaders in high-trust workplaces ask for help from colleagues instead of just telling them to do things. Asking for help is effective because it taps into the natural human impulse to cooperate with others.
The effect of trust on work performance is powerful. Teams have more energy, are more engaged, and are more productive.
And trust pays: Those companies in the highest quartile of trust, make more and pay more – 17% more – than those in the lowest quartile.
Have a great week.
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