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Hello everyone. Welcome to the 5 Minutes Podcast. Today I like to talk about trust, but I don't want to talk about trust. Just saying, Oh, it's such a nice word, or it's so politically right. Of course, there is no single human being that will not talk that trust. It's something important in relationships, in work, and in the project environment. But I want to talk about trust as a key to getting things done, a key to doing the job. And I just want to read a quote from Paul Zak in his article for Harvard Business Review, and he said In his research, compared with people at low-trust companies, people at high-trust companies report 74% less stress, 106% more energy at work, 50% higher productivity, 13% fewer sick days, 76% more engagement, 29% more satisfaction with their lives and 40% less burnout. You know, if you are not convinced by these numbers, I don't know what will convince you. And my tip to you is that you should focus on three pillars. If you want to develop trust among your team members and you are, I would say, or your organization. And the first one is psychological safety. I know that I have said this so many times, but now I want just to go a little bit deeper. When I talk about psychological safety, I'm talking clearly about the freedom of communication. People are able to express themselves. They are able to provide feedback. You create an environment where people are open to demonstrating fragility.
They are open to sharing what they think; they are open to making positive and constructive criticism. Because if people don't feel that they are safe doing that, what they will do and it's a natural human instinct. They will just close themselves. They will just not trust you; they will have doubts about your actual intention. The second thing is about consistency, and what do I mean by consistency? It's simple. Like if people look at you in the morning, if people look at you at night, if people look at you in a meeting, if people look at you in the field working, if people look at you in a suit, with a dress or with jeans, you are the same. You have the same moral compass. You are not someone that is unpredictable. You are not someone that in the morning you were one at night. You are completely different in a meeting with your boss. You are one person, but with your employees, you become another person. Because if people start feeling this about you, they feel that you don't have consistency. You don't have one single rule where you evaluate and trust people. And it's like treating people in different ways. For example, for the same challenge, you need to be consistent. And last but not least, it is all about honesty, honesty, and transparency. Honesty to even say and send bad news because your project life is not just filled with great news, but you need to be honest, and this is personal advice to you.
Never ever forget to be transparent. This is the key to your honesty. And I messed it up a couple of times, and I messed it up because I was not transparent. I knew things that I decided not to share because I didn't want to create turbulence at that moment. And later I paid a very high price because when the change came, people said no. What you said to me was different. You are not being trustful. And it was a disaster for me. And this is why I'm telling you, don't make this mistake even if you have to tell me very bad news. You need to be empathetic, you need to be friendly, but you need to say what you think. Because if you don't say that damage will be ten times bigger in the future. So think always about that. If you want to build trust and get things done, not trust by trust, you need to create an environment where people feel safe. You need to be consistent with your acts, and you need to be honest and transparent. Every single thing you do. This will reduce burnout, improve happiness and, in the end, improve productivity and deliver better results. And this is what matters. I hope you enjoy this podcast, and see you next week with another 5 Minutes Podcast.
