Sales Managers: Build a Culture of Trust

Make no mistake: Unless you and all the leaders in your organization can gain the trust of your employees, performance will suffer.

It's a matter of human nature: When employees don't trust their leaders, they don't feel safe. And they don't feel safe, they don't take risks - and where no risk is taken, there is less innovation, less "going the extra mile," and therefore, very little unexpected upside. As a leader, you must model trustworthiness for everyone else. Here are some very specific things you can do to provide unusually excellent, trust-building leadership at your organization.

The Real Deal

Look for chances to revel some vulnerability. We trust people we believe are real and also human (imperfect and flawed) - just like us. And that usually means allowing others to get a glimpse of our personal vulnerability. An authentic, not fabricated weakness or fear, raw emotion that allows others to see us as like them, and therefore relate to us at the human level.
Take Carl, a self-made success and CEO of a venture-backed software company, a great example. Carl had a PhD and held a senior management position but came from humble roots. In fact, Carl was the first one in his family to go to college. The stories Carl used when leading his team meetings were told from the heart about these humble beginnings. His team not only trusted him more because he wasn't afraid to show that side of himself, but they loved him for it.

Honesty Matters

No matter how tempted you are, don't BS your employees. Tell the truth, match your actions with your words and match those words with the truth we all see in the world: no spin, no fancy justifications or revisionist history - just tell the truth.
Telling the truth when it is not convenient or popular, or when it will make you look bad, can be tough. Yes, it's essential to your reputation. Your task as a leader is to be as fourth right and transparent as is realistically possible. Strive to disclose the maximum amount of information appropriate to the situation. When you feel yourself starting to bend what you know is the truth or withhold the bare facts, find a new way to stop, reformat your communication and tell the truth.

No Guarantees

Never, ever make the "adulterer's guarantee." This happens when you say to an employee in effect, "I just lied to someone else, but you can trust me because I'd never lie to you."
When an employee sees you committing any act of dishonesty or two-facedness, they'll assume that you'll do the same to them. They'll start thinking back through all of their conversations with you, wondering what was real and what was disingenuous.

Go Digital

Don't punish "good failures." This is one of the stupidest things an organization can do - yet it happens all the time. A "good failure" is a term used in Silicone Valley to describe a new business start-up or mature company initiate that, by most measures, is well planned, well run and well organized - yet for reasons beyond its control it fails.
When these are punished you instill fear of risk taking in your employees, and with that you stifle creativity and innovation. Instead, strive to create a "digital camera" culture. There is no expense associated with an imperfect digital photograph - financial or otherwise. You just hit the delete button. No wasted film, slides or prints. We are aware of this relationship between mistakes and the consequences when we pick up the camera - so we click away. We take many more pictures than we would in a world of costly film. Make the failures free. Because of this, people will take chances, and in that effort they will often get that one amazing picture that they wouldn't have if they were paying a price for all the mistakes.

The Fairness Doctrine

Constantly tap into your "fairness conscience." Precise agreements about what is fair are hard to negotiate, because each of us has out own sense of fairness. But at the level of general principle, there is seldom any confusion about what fair looks like. Just ask yourself: Would most people see this as fair or unfair? You'll know the answer.
If you treat your followers fairly and do so consistently, you will set a pattern of behavior for the entire organization. This sense of fairness is critical to the creation of a safe environment, can be reinforced not only with fair practices but also by privately speaking to or if necessary, censuring - subordinates who behave unfairly to others.

One Bad Apple

Separate the bad apples from the apples who just need a little direction. The cost of untruths to an organization can be huge in terms of time, money, trust  and reputation. As a leader, you have to recognize that you are not going to be able to "fix" a thief, a pathological liar or a professional con artist - all of these must go, immediately.
That said, one huge mistake leaders make is to doubt or distrust someone because of their work performance disappoints us. Performance problems should be managed fairly and with little judgment of the persons underlying character, unless that is the issue at the root of the trouble. Ultimately, improving performance is merely a matter of feedback, course correction and some coaching.