Measuring Your Ultimate Advantage

I like to think of trust as an organisation’s ultimate advantage.
With enough trust in you, people assume your intentions are great.
They recommend you to folk they care about.
Sometimes they even buy your products sight unseen, simply because you suggest it.
It works internally too. When your employees trust you, they’ll follow your leadership. Without it, they’ll assume your decisions are self-serving or incompetent, and so work against you.
I’ve worked under people I trust. My goodness, the efforts I was willing to go to, to help realise their vision…
A trust-centric organisation is innovative, agile and a magnet for the best people in your field. It’s amazing what your people can do when the system gets out of their way.
In other words, when they’re trusted to do their jobs.
But a trusting nature is like driving ability:
Everyone overestimates their own.
So many leaders say, sure, I trust my people to get the job done!
But how much freedom do they actually have?
How much of their day lies in getting permission for this or filing reports for that?
Bureaucracy is the opposite of trust. It boxes people in and forces them into the “correct” lane.
It’s great at handling misfits, appalling at handling your creative geniuses.
So if you want to measure the trust-centricity of your organisation or team, it’s simple.
One approach is to ask. If trust is terrible, they’ll let you know.
But a better, more accurate approach is to analyse your time.
How much of your day disappears in giving and seeking permission?
Every moment you spend chasing paperwork and looking up SOPs is a moment stolen from deep, creative work. Obviously, you can’t eliminate all processes. Some are legal requirements, others are ways of aligning work and capturing organisational knowledge. Total anarchy only works for organisations of five or fewer – and even then it can go wrong.
But it’s like so many things. A little is essential, a lot is fatal.
It’s like trust on a personal level. Yes, you can be too trusting. Yes, you can trust folk who then take advantage of it.
If you were like the typical organisation, you’d make friends complete a vetting process and fill out request forms to spend time with you.
The only way to live – as a person or an organisation – is to trust, trust and trust again. Trust as much as you can stand. Sure, you open yourself up to a broken heart or employee who takes advantage. That’s the price you have to knowingly, willingly, even eagerly pay.
Because the alternative?
Operating under a lack of trust?
That’s a miserable, lonely and non-competitive way to operate.

The best way to enhance your organisation is with the ultimate advantage: trust.
But how do you measure something like that, let alone improve it?
Especially if your workforce is stretched thin, cynical and burned out on change?
There are simple, effective and proven strategies you can begin implementing today. I know you can unlock the creativity, productivity and joy of your employees.
Learn how today with my free white paper and all the resources you need to launch your own trust-based change initiative:
https://battenandking.com/advantage

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