Trust. Is your lack of trust limiting your performance?

How do you know if you can trust someone in your team?

Trust them!

That has been  a bit of a mantra of mine and over the years, I've enjoyed this conversation with various people.  It’s been particularly useful with clients who are struggling to let go of control because they don’t trust their team. This can mean that work is being held on to and workload increases, often to an overload point by the time I meet them in my coaching sessions.

Often, they have been managing their team with a view that, if they are not managed closely, they won't do the job properly. Or, they don't know how to let go of their workload and delegate effectively.

Sometimes they have been benchmarking their team against the least capable member or someone who has let them down, which of course can happen. Sometimes it can be the concern about what happens if they let go and things don’t go to plan! It can feel more comfortable to stay in the comfort zone of micro-managing and high control…

Whatever the reason, the reality is some team members will be under utilised and the chances are that the more capable members of the team are frustrated and bored. That’s if they have stayed in role long enough to get bored!

It may feel like a big step to transition from directive control to develop through to delegation but without it a team won’t realise it’s full potential. In my corporate role I found the time invested in developing individuals was returned many times over and team capability increased to produce results that we were all proud of.

Development and progression are key elements for employee retention. Taking time for training, teaching and coaching will up-skill people to be better at their jobs, enjoy their work and take on more. This results in a positive shift of increasing your 'employee contribution lever'. It means that more could be done, all for the same payroll cost. Now that’s something I can get excited about!

Trust doesn’t mean letting go of everything. It means recognising that with good training and support, agreeing outcome expectations and review methods, team members are capable of more. And if  team members take on more, that will leave the leader with more time to focus on what adds real value to their business… Which hopefully involves creating a little bit more workplace fun too :)

If you want to understand how to get more from your team, let's talk!

https://calendly.com/sean-coachexperience/discovery-meeting