6 ways to create a high-trust organisation

Leaders often think they are entitled to their workers’ support, but they are not.

“Workers need to choose to follow you. You cannot force or coerce people to follow you. And even if you do, you will have their hands, not their hearts,” says Marlinie Ramsamy, the CEO of FranklinCovey South Africa, a performance-improvement organisation.

She says that for leaders to win the respect of their teams and to develop a successful team, they must inspire trust.

Ramsamy cites public protector Thuli Madonsela as an example of a leader who displays these qualities.

She has this advice for managers:

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• Trustworthy managers are the building blocks of high-trust organisations;

• The foundation of trust is credibility. The leader must  extend trust first;

• The best leaders begin by framing trust in economic terms.  When an organisation has low trust,  economic consequences follow;

• Creating a high-trust organisation requires  focus and dedication;

• For a company to transform itself into a high-trust organisation, especially if there is a legacy of low trust, the culture of the organisation needs to change fundamentally to reflect this; and

• Each manager needs to begin the process of change with themselves so they can approach their teams with confidence when discussing the changes in the broader organisation.