To Trust or Not to Trust - How to Lead a Team with Confidence

Running a business can be very tough on a person's psyche and it really isn't something that just anyone can do. No matter how strong your mindset is, it is a fact that you can get very strained by being in charge of so many decisions and responsible for the future of so many people as a head of a company. It is only natural that this strain becomes more severe as the company in question gets bigger and there is more money flowing around. As the pressure rises and things start to seem like they are just a step from falling apart, business owners tend to become a bit paranoid.

This is something that is hard to avoid and can be problematic to handle, but it is essential to keep your view of the situation as objective as possible. Trust is a very important issue, and if you are under the impression that you can't trust anyone, you will start to take on more work than you can handle. In order to handle all the obligations that your work includes, you will need allies, so here are a few tips on how to make some allies.

Tip no. 1

Handpick your employees

In order to ensure that you can trust your employees, you need to be familiar with them. In other words, you need to know their educational background, their previous experience and to have at least some contact with them so you can get to know at least the superficial part of their personality. When you become aware of what kind of people you are harboring in your companies ranks, you will feel more inclined to trust them as employees who will handle their part of obligations. This will also facilitate the choosing of employees suitable for promotions.

Tip no. 2

Develop relationships and contacts

Don't be that mystery boss that shuts himself/herself behind the door of his office and only comes out to brood on his employees or communicates only through his/hers right-hand man. You need direct contact with your employees on a daily basis, especially if you own a small business that has somewhere between 10 and 50 workers. You need to see how they are handling their work flow, if they might need backup, do they think that there is a more efficient way to do things and so on. Getting involved and being able to address your employees by name is important both for you and them. This will help you develop mutual trust, respect and establish a presence of a boss that is always there following the progress of his employees.

Tip no. 3

Monitoring is boring?

Well, there are up sides and down sides to monitoring your employees. In my personal opinion, you don't need to follow every move your employees make, since being under constant surveillance can actually demotivate people and ruin productivity. People tried running companies through stress and fear back in the 80s and 90s. This trend is dead for obvious reasons. Some things are worth following though. For example, following a progress through project management software is a very good approach. Also, tracking the movement of company's vehicles through GPS in order to make sure they are not abused is very important.

Tip no. 4

Build consistency in behavior

In order to ensure that your employees know what their obligations are and what you expect from them, you need to maintain a consistent approach. If you switch between good cop, bad cop routine too often, you are going to create an office full of people who don't know how to approach you. You can hardly blame them for acting shifty when their view of you is the equivalent of the one they would have of a schizophrenic cat lady living on the street. On top of being the boss, you need to show your human side, or at least create a consistent personality so that people know how to approach you.

You need to invest time in building a relationship with your employees, and nobody can do this for you. Having a trustworthy core team isn't something you just get, you need to build it! When can you start building it? Today is a great day!