5 reasons managers don't need trust
Trust is a fickle bitch. It changes all the time and within corporations it is not mentioned in a single KPI or company objective, so there is really no need to do something with it. Trus is simply there or not. Managing is: ‘getting results’, not ‘making friends’.
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Here are 5 things managers can do to stay on their game and have nothing to do with trust.
1. Be unavailable
Busy, busy, busy. Managers are busy with important stuff. They don’t have time to reply e-mails, calls are redirected to staff with instructions not to bother them and appointments can be deleted or rescheduled at least 3 or 4 times before a meeting takes place. The larger the distance between the manager and an employee, the less reason for trust to build.
2. Don’t be invested
Don’t know the names of employees. Use words to describe people as commodities like ‘Units’ or ‘Agents’. Never listen to what individual employees say.
3. Control!
Use as much data and instruments of control that is available: detailed task-setting per minute, KPI-targets, activity dashboards, NPS scoring. Managers need everything possible instrument to steer their division or department to get results. The more control the more grip.
4. Fake it until you make it
Managers know how to manage. When working with skilled professionals, managers can fake their expert knowledge just as well. In-dept knowledge and experience simply are for-hire commodities.
5. Never be accountable
When a manager can’t deliver on a promise, he should never apologize, Ignore, deflect or reinterpret spoken words. Make sure there are others to blame when something goes wrong.
25 May 2021,
Jan van der Spoel helps individuals and companies to transform average relationships into high-trust relationships.