Patti Cotton

Executive Coach & Career Strategist

accountable

Are You Holding Your Employees Hostage?

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Are You Holding Your Employees Hostage?
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Five Ways to Find Out…

Do your employees feel happy and secure at work?

Or do they feel as though they are being held hostage?

You may not realize it, but when an enterprise is trust deficient, its employees suffer, which means the company does, too.

In fact, if your culture isn’t emotionally connected, your employees can experience the same stressful range of emotions as a hostage does, feeling anxious, fearful, and with the ambition to get out quickly.

It’s difficult to detect the emotions – but you can readily see the effects. What should you look for? And what’s causing it?

Here are five ways to identify whether your culture is lacking in trust, and what is causing it.

  1. Your executive team hasn’t had a new idea in ages.

Your executives are aware of changing trends, but they aren’t exhibiting the creativity and innovation needed for the company to retain its competitive edge. This usually indicates an atmosphere where new and creative is not welcome, or where the opinions of others are not valued.

Are you surrounded by “yes” people who always think your ideas are wonderful?

If so, you will want to take a look at your listening skills and determine if you are encouraging the perspectives of others – not being first with all the answers.

  1. You have a manager who is a chronic complainer.

Your managers tend to shy away from solutions and wait for you to solve problems. One of them consistently brings complaints to your door.

Are you holding them accountable for results?

I’m guessing you are. But are you empowering them with the ability to come up with possible solutions to problems?

If you have complainers or those who wait for orders, this means you need to exercise providing feedback to help them take that responsibility.

  1. One of your teams doesn’t play well with others.

Teams have trouble getting the work done when they must involve other teams to complete an initiative.

Does one of your teams have a chronic “bad kid” reputation? If they can’t connect well with others to get the job done, this means a conversation about their performance with the rest of the enterprise.

Of course, this can’t be done in isolation – chances are, if you have a “bad kid” team in your company, the culture supports it. Time to revisit.

  1. You put up with a key employee who is rough around the edges.

This person is great at technical skills, but very poor when it comes to getting along with others.

This is close to #3 above – the “bad kid” team. However, if you have put up with a key employee who is rough around the edges, this probably means you don’t want to touch the situation for a reason.

Perhaps the person is a star performer or some kind of genius who can do something for your enterprise that no one else can.

Think again – when an employee is allowed to mistreat or disrespect others, this is a de-motivator to the rest of your employee base. Demotivation leads to productivity loss, turnover, etc. – so, no matter how good they are, their behavior is not worth putting up with. Find a solution.

  1. One or more of your teams or areas is less productive than others.

This can manifest in ways such as sub-par productivity, continually missed deadlines, and finger-pointing and blaming in meetings.

Who is steering your ship? If you find that you are continually taking that team’s manager to task on poor performance, this means you haven’t defined what productivity looks like – or you aren’t holding him or her accountable to that shared agreement.

Being transparent about how this is affecting the larger body is pivotal. You are otherwise disrespecting your entire employee base.

These five scenarios cultivate a culture that is devoid of trust. And when trust is lacking, the enterprise will suffer. Where do you need more trust in your organization? Download the infographic to find out.

HOW MUCH

DO OTHERS REALLY TRUST YOU?

​Learn the two vital parts to trust and how they can help you become a more highly effective leader.

GET THE INFOGRAPHIC

How Much Do Others Really Trust You?

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How Much Do Others Really Trust You?
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How much do others really trust you?

Most people see themselves as rather trustworthy. The problem is that your perception may not be the same as the picture others have of you.

How can you tell if you need to boost your trust factor with others?

Beth was one who excelled in competence – but something in her character kept others from feeling confident in her leadership. They just didn’t trust her.

Sure, she was capable and committed to the company. Her results were hard to beat. But when she was put in charge of a team, her CEO received significant backlash.

“I’m not saying she isn’t a great executive,” said one team member. “But she’s hard to read and she often switches gears in the middle of a project. It’s like fielding flies. How can we work with her if she doesn’t share what she’s thinking? I’m not sure I can trust her.”

What part of trust was lacking in Beth? Transparency – a vital piece to sound leadership character. Where she excelled in performance and results, she lacked the ability to share readily with others. This absence of communication led others to believe that she did not value their participation. In fact, this stemmed from Beth’s fear of being doubted in her decision-making. But that’s another article. The end result for our purposes here was that because Beth did not communicate, people did not trust her. They saw her as competent, but untrustworthy all the same.

Another executive, Jack, connected well with and respected others in all he undertook. It was clear that he held positive intent with all endeavors. This is all part of leadership character.

But Jack’s ability to hold himself and others accountable – a part of leadership competence – was woefully inadequate. As a result, Jack’s performance and that of his team was hit and miss. Because he found it difficult to stick with a plan and hold others to it, he missed several good opportunities for promotion.

You’ll see in the list below that there are indeed two vital parts to trust:

  • Affective trust – the emotional part of trust. How well are you able to create mutually-based concern for and with others? How well do you create bonds with others that feel solid and authentic? We call things relating to this part of creating trust your leadership character.
  • Cognitive trust – the rational part of trust that causes others to feel you are reliable, dependable, competent. We call things relating to this part of creating trust your leadership competence.

As you review this list, what do you celebrate about your own leadership? Where are your growing edges?

And would others say the same?

HOW MUCH

DO OTHERS REALLY TRUST YOU?

​Learn the two vital parts to trust and how they can help you become a more highly effective leader.

GET THE INFOGRAPHIC

3 Things a Leader in a New Role Needs to Know

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3 Things a Leader in a New Role Needs to Know

Congratulations!  You did it. You got the position, the title, and the salary telling you that you have arrived.

They gave you the team and the commission to change the world.

But did they tell you that you aren’t really in control?

That your hard-earned expertise is now for naught?

What do you do, now?

If you’ve done your research, you will have put together a game plan, and you are working on your “first 100 days” in office. You will be gathering and triaging information, building your new tribe, identifying short-term wins and long-term wins – the whole enchilada.

And this is absolutely necessary for so many reasons – you’ll be closely watched by those who chose you for the job. The two times they look most closely are during the first three months of your tenure, and at the end of your first year. A lot of judgment is going on. For you, these days are also critical – you need to quickly build trust with your team, identify and forge your operational network, and above all, avoid political landmines…

But – here are three things that you may not hear, and that you need to know right now:

1. What got you here won’t get you there.

You have been recognized for your success to this point. You were in charge of a certain area of responsibility, and that landscape has now changed. By extension, it’s important to know that your present knowledge base may no longer be useful – that the reasons for which they promoted you are not necessarily the reasons that will help you succeed, now. Your operational network – the network that helps you to get the job done – will now change. And even if you are highly skilled at spinning multiple plates, you will now need to develop the ability to manage the new, different pieces that this promotion brings. In short: ask yourself what the new pieces are – which are “need to manage,” “nice to manage,” and simply “nice to know.”  Keep it streamlined.

2. You aren’t in control – but you are in charge and therefore accountable.

It’s a changing world, and therefore a lot of external factors exist that you cannot control, both in the marketplace, and inside your company. Strategies and tactics will come and go as the company attempts to keep up and remain viable. To be successful so that you do your part to help the enterprise remain profitable and sustainable, you will need to re-examine your own beliefs and how you manage your environment. Why? Because at the end of the day, you can blame the externals for failure, but you are still accountable for what you did to help your area succeed. In short: don’t make any assumptions. Ask questions, stay abreast of trends and what is required to meet this – and ask yourself how this affects you, your team, and the company.

3. Your best game is only as accountable as your weakest link.

Get to know your team, its strategies and ways of operating, and be candid in asking them what has worked in the past, what has not worked, what could be better. Ask them where the team as a whole hesitates – what team behavior holds them back from their best envisioned performance. Ask them what tools and support they need to do their best work. Many team action plans are stuffed away in drawers, unused, because of counterproductive behaviors that keep these from reaching set goals. And many of these counterproductive behaviors are due to not having the resources and tools to do their best job. In short: find out what they feel they need to excel.

Here’s to a successful next professional chapter for you!

Patti Cotton helps executives optimize their effectiveness in leading self, others, and enterprises. Her areas of focus include confidence, leadership style, executive presence, effective communication, and masterful execution. With over 25 years of leadership experience, both stateside and abroad, Patti works with individuals, teams, and organizations across industries, providing executive coaching, leadership development, change, and conflict management. She is also a Fortune 500 speaker. For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.