Monday, January 18, 2010

Trust

Reading a new book by Chris Brogan called "Trust". It is about the development and importance of trust between a business and its customers as well as its potential customers.

Got me to thinking about the trust between a business and its employees. Often I hear comments such as: "my employees don't implement the programs." "I don't trust them to get it done." "I don't trust them to even try."

Pretty powerful words coming from the heartland of America. Why don't you trust your employees to implement?

Is it because you hired bad employees to start with or that you didn't train them to set goals, decide on strategies, tactics and timetables to get it done?

And then hold them accountable!

Or was it because they violated your trust a long time ago and you're still suspicious or you are convinced they just don't care?

Whatever the reason, you need to build back the trust element between your employees and you. If you cannot accomplish this, either get new employees or sell the business because, long-term, if you can't build trust with your employees, how can you build trust with your customers?