Key steps to building trust

So, whether you're hybrid, remote, in-person, whatever, the first step of coaching is always the same. Trust. You've got to build trust with your people. And the reason you build trust with your people is because they're just not going to listen to you and really sort of take your meaning if they don't have trust. Now, it is true that in a hybrid environment, I would say it's like specialized. People think it's harder to build trust in a hybrid environment. Maybe not. what I would say is that it definitely requires more planning. And if you think about it, it's because you don't necessarily see them every day. And so you're going to deal with them a lot on a video screen and you're going to miss a lot of that chitchat that you have typically organically inside of a company, which means you have to really think about, how am I going to build trust with this person? So now this is the question, how am I going to build trust with your people? That is the million dollar question. And I'm going to give you a few tactics, but I guess I first want to ask you a question. Think about your whole career. Think about managers you've had in the past who've built trust with you, that you feel like, oh, I really trust this person. Like, do you have someone in your head right now? Because when you have this model of somebody who built trust with you, you're gonna really get like a template for yourself, like tools for yourself about how to build trust with other people. So think about this person, get them in your head, and ask yourself, what did they do? What did they say? What did they do? What were the moments that made you really feel like this person has my back? And when you think about those now, like when you were being managed, now put yourself in the shoes of the manager. And that's what you want to do with your people. You want to act consistently. You want to communicate to them so they really understand that you have their best interest at heart. Okay, so now we're gonna talk about specifically related to hybrid. Because with hybrid, you're gonna just see them on the video, you're gonna be emailing them, you're going to be on the phone with them. And so very often, you're gonna have to build trust in a virtual environment. So I guess, firing your shoes, here's the way I would think about that. First of all, here's what I know to be true about many managers. They don't like chit chat. They don't like a lot of that, how is your weekend stuff. And I don't blame you because I'm the same way. I don't love that either. But the truth is, if you don't kind of engage with your people in kind of that like small talk stuff, they're not gonna experience you as caring about them as people. And so it's not about you and your agenda, it's really about them and their agenda. So when you talk with them, it's really helpful to have like five minutes of pleasantries before you jump in. You can say, how was your weekend? You can say, you know, what's going on with some situation they've been working with, or you know, their kid in the soccer game, whatever that is. Something that I like to do is I like to say to my people, hey, so what's going on? Give me a little slice of life. Because what that does is it kind of surfaces for them what's going on in their lives, and they can kind of have an open-ended dialogue with you. And it kind of like lays the table for just a little more humanity, a little more rapport building. And I think that's like very healthy for the conversation. And again, it's like a trust building situation. The second thing is that when you delegate to your people, it's very helpful to remember that you're delegating for them not just to get stuff off your plate, but specifically to help them build their career. So for example, you might say, I'm gonna delegate like this regular presentation to you. And rather than it be, here's another to do for you, Stewart, it can instead be, listen, I know you wanna build presentation skills. I know that you want to also, you know, have more impact in this company, more visibility. The way to do that is for you to present in this meeting. I'm going to let you do it from now on. I'm not going to do it anymore. So that's like a way to delegate something that really showcases. I care about you. I'm looking out for your career and you matter to me. So that's another tool. And then the last tool I'm going to talk about right now is help them find mentors, help them find mentors, help them find people who can help them with their career. And when you do that, you really give them the sense, I'm looking out for you. I wanna make sure that you are successful. I'm like thinking about you as a bigger picture, not just like what you can do for me, but about your overall career journey. And so when you help them in those ways, it's really a trust building experience. So I guess the way I think about that is, deal with them like a human, build rapport, build relationship. Number two, delegate with an eye towards, you know, their long-term career success. And number three, help them find mentors and allies. And that is gonna set you up as a manager who really cares about them, and that is gonna build trust, and that's gonna help you coach effectively.