Trust & the "bottom line"...some questions to ponder

Let me continue this topic by asking a couple of simple questions to give you some food for thought.  

As a person who who is in a leadership role, be it a board member, senior executive, line manager or even a team leader leading a team of volunteers; have you ever found yourself in a situation where there was a direct report you just did not trust?  Be it due to something that happened or someone new who joined the team and you weren't sure what their motivations were.  

How did you engage with this person?  Did you find that you were open to their suggestions or feedback, or any information for that matter which they provided to you?  

Do you think this had a positive or negative impact on the ability of the organisation or team to achieve its goals?

Hang on, hang on...don't jump to conclusions just yet...I realise that the impatient among us might feel that they need to address this immediately which could result in disastrous consequences.  Please bear with me a while longer....

Some more questions to ponder on....

Have you ever worked in an organisation where you reported to someone or even worked a couple of levels down from the senior leadership but somehow did not trust their motivations; for some reason did not trust their leadership or worse case just simply did not agree with the direction in which they were taking the organisation? In other words, you did not trust their judgement.

How did this make you feel? Were you motivated to do the best at what you were being paid to do?  Maybe your answer to this last question was yes as you would comment that you are a person of integrity and although you don't agree with people you will always deliver you best.  Well, let me ask you this, would you be more or less inclined to share information, other than the minimum required from your role.  To give an example, if you are attending a weekly feedback meeting, would you provide the minimum feedback required, or would you feel motivated to share ideas on how things could be improved as well?

Now, reverse the roles.  Try, you might find this hard, depending on the specific situation.

Would you view things differently?  Would you view people differently?

You see, viewing situations and people from other's perspective sometimes, not always, but sometimes, provides us with new information which allows us to alter our own thoughts and decision making.  

My experience has been that it's really hard for people to see different perspectives.  This ultimately creates a barrier for trust to be built, ultimately resulting in inefficiency and unproductive behaviour within individuals, teams and organisations regardless of experience, seniority or intellect.