Strong Leaders Build Trust By Revealing Weakness

In the modern business world, the definition of effective leadership is constantly evolving. However most experts agree, effective leadership is always dependent on your ability to establish and build trust. An absence of trust can lead to crippling problems: rapid employee turnover, an exaggerated fear of making mistakes and stifling internal tensions. In his inaugural story on Platinum Rules for Success, Gregg Gregory explains building trust and transforming leadership begins with something counter intuitive: revealing weakness. Read on and share your thoughts in the comments below!

Strong Leaders Build Trust By Revealing Weakness

by Gregg Gregory

Even among teams that have worked together for years, there’s room to build trust between team members and their leader. For teams that have recently undergone a fundamental change – such as absorbing new members from other teams, or resizing to a smaller team – re-forming and rebuilding trust are absolutely critical. How do you build trust? Here are four simple activities you can do to build trust both as the leader and the team as a whole.

Use Self-Deprecating Humor: Many of the greatest comedians in the world use self-deprecating humor and laugh at themselves, and in business we can learn from laughter. When a leader shows their misgivings and where they are weaker, they are not laughed at – rather their trust factor is bolstered.

Hold a Personal History Exercise: When team members take time to share their personal stories, it opens up their vulnerability—and when everyone becomes vulnerable, trust is elevated.

Create Accountability Partners: When team members are accountable to others on the team, they feel a stronger sense of obligation not to let them down. One effective way to establish this is to partner members with someone they do not know as well and then rotate partners a couple of times per year.

Schedule Activities Outside of Work: While this may sound crazy, the more team members can connect outside of the workplace, the more engaged they will become at work. The more engaged they become, the stronger the trust, and subsequently the stronger the team. These activities can range from a night out for pizza, to bowling, to an afternoon of paintball and much more. Great organizations do these kinds of activities constantly, often as part of regular employee training and development. They build trust and in turn, improve teamwork – leading to happier employees and better productivity overall.

Copyright © 2017, Gregg Gregory & Teams Rock. First published October 16, 2017.

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A diverse, twenty-year background in real estate, mortgage banking, event planning, and production, as well as radio and television broadcasting, created a perfect story that put Gregg Gregory where he is today. Gregg works hard to ensure that different personalities can work together successfully to accomplish your organization’s mission, goals, and objectives.

For more information, call Gregg at (301) 564-0908 or visit www.teamsrock.com