Overworked or simply not trusting?

Too often we focus on How do people trust me, but not on “How can I trust others”

Here goes,

1. Triple checking the report that the Juniors have made
2. Creating that special sauce in the kitchen at 4 am every morning or,
3. Answering all phone calls from the client every time.

Does this sound familiar?

It is not wrong, perhaps it is even the reason why you are the leader you are right now. Making sure that the craft we meant to do are delivered to our high standard is one example of a responsible leader.

The question is: are we overworking ourselves too much because of it? are we too scared to share this responsibility with someone that is 3 years behind us in the experience?

One of the memes that I enjoyed is a picture of Jay Z saying to an interviewer “I didn’t go to Harvard but everyone that works for me went to Harvard”. The company Steam in an article said that one of their way of recruiting is to hire people that are smarter than those that are already in the office

Regardless of the truth about the Jay Z meme and Steam’s consistency in doing so, I am a believer in those 2 things, that our role as leaders is not to be the smartest ones, the front line of every client conversation or the person that hold the secret recipe. But our roles are to be

1. Brave enough to give a chance to someone that is (potentially)smarter than us to handle a big project (i.e Establishing Trust ),
2. To give them a safe environment where they can take charge (i.e Environment of Trust) and
3. To create a trust and loyalty that is respected by the team (i.e. Extending Trust

In doing this, time will become our friend, we don't need to overwork because we have our team that is sharing the load. Even better when we truly trust someone, we won't be stressed about the outcome.

And remember: developing trust in our team is an act of leadership, it is not an act of waiting until they become mature, or until they can do this, that, those. When we feel that we can’t trust them, it is on us not on them.

There are strategies, plans, actions that we can do as leaders to build our trust. Will go through these on future blogs. I promise.

Too often we focus on How do people trust me, but not on “How can I trust others” Let's be responsible for our own trust to our team.

Happy Trusting!

CT