Organizations Move at the Speed of Trust

By: Dr. Nels Lindberg Production Animal Consultation

Every single thing we do each and every day is an opportunity to build trust with another person. It could be with a co-worker, spouse, friend, parent or child. This occurs because with every interaction we have all day long, we either increase trust or decrease trust.

With every new person we meet, they size us up in seconds and subconsciously ask themselves, “Do I respect them and can I trust them?”

We often say “trust is earned”, but in reality, trust is not earned, trust is given. We cannot demand trust, we cannot ask for it, and we cannot expect it. Rather we must create a deep, personal, even emotional connection in any relationship before it is given.

There have been many instances in all of our lives in which trust was chipped away at or even ruined to the point of us saying or thinking, “I’ll never trust them again.” The most common and earliest form of earning trust is often in a friendship. For many of us, those first glimpses or experiences of trust building and trust destruction often occur in our first relationships in high school or college. Someone often leaves the relationship after having been cheated on or betrayed in some form or another. For many, those experiences leave people in a distrusting spirit for much of their life, or at least until they experience an extreme level of true, vulnerable, transparent trust in another relationship. Sometimes, those experiences even cause a person to distrust themselves given their actions, decisions and emotional connections.

In the feedlot world, the protein production world or any business, there are many ways to build trust. To begin building trust, we have to create a closer connection to that person or persons. We must create a high level of vulnerable trust, meaning you tell your people your biggest mistakes and screw-ups and how you have self-created many of the issues. We have to make ourselves human, real and vulnerable. In my consulting roles, I talk about this with other leaders and often get the comment, “That’s none of their business.” I understand that, but it all depends on what level of trust you want to build and how real you want to be to your people, as well as what level of fake and shallowness you want to dissolve. If you want your people to walk through fire for you or with you, you have to tell them EVERYTHING, every single mistake.

In the leadership world, be it a feedyard or any protein production operation, you have to trust your people from day one and earn their trust in return. It may not be fair, but that is just how it is as a manager, head cowboy, cattle foreman or any team leader. Remember, trust is given, not earned. You hired them, and if you don’t trust them from day one, why did you hire them? We must trust them to the point that we have their back because for our people to perform at peak performance, we must trust that they will execute. They also want to know that even if they make a mistake, we will have their back and support them through the learning process of a mistake. This is crucial as a leader to earning your team member’s trust and is a common mistake leaders routinely make. Because of our egos we think, ”They should trust me given what I do.” Remember, you hired them so you should trust them, but just because you hired them, doesn’t mean they trust you!

Some of the biggest challenges in trust I see in the agriculture world today are in transition times, when a new manager, head cowboy or cattle foreman is hired at a yard, or when a new owner takes over an operation. At those points, your people are scared of what may or may not happen. They are distrusting of what the future may hold, because there is real uncertainty to them, and of your abilities, even though you are very confident in what you are doing. In those situations, every interaction can increase trust or decrease trust. We must work very hard to develop a close relationship and connection to our people. We must convince them that we care deeply about them and their success, that we are not the enemy and we are not looking to get rid of them. We must convince them that we have their back from day one. Trust is not like a bank account in which we grow and build trust by making “daily deposits.” Trust is like a water balloon; if it breaks, it is gone.

For everything I am involved in, I work and push people very hard to root out all manipulators and liars, because a distrusting environment in any business or relationship creates a cancer. I have learned that a manipulator or liar often times may have a direct leader that is a manipulator or a liar. We can work to rid an organization of the manipulators and liars, but we must first look inward at ourselves and other leaders in the organization, as we or they may be creating more manipulators and liars, or drama and chaos. It can be a vicious circle of lies, or it can be an awesome, humble, vulnerable circle of trust. It is up to each of us to build that ever-so-powerful circle of intentional and impactful trust. We must be sincere, warm, caring and compassionate. We must show good will and high levels of benevolence. We must be a person of integrity, fairness and impact. And we must have the ability to trust those we bring into our fold in order for them to give us their trust in return.