One of the more underrated attributes of great leadership is building a trustworthy process for people to work together. This concept was introduced to me by the Kansas Leadership Center (aka KLC), as it is one of the sub-competencies they teach.
But what does building a trustworthy process mean? Think about a time when you worked at your best with a team of people. The environment might've felt like a seamless exchange and flow of ideas, where collaboration between people was at its very best. People felt safe to share their input, and the workflow process felt consistent and reliable. Accountability was shared amongst everyone on the team. All of these attributes were created by the members of the team building a trustworthy process for everyone.
In other words, a trustworthy process is what helps a team do their best work.
So how do you create a trustworthy process for your team? The folks at KLC have six tips to consider*:
1) Keep purpose front and center. Does your team know the guiding purpose for what they do? That purpose might look like creating a company environment that is more inclusive of younger workers, or creating more meaningful community engagement.
2) Have someone design and facilitate who is more loyal to a healthy, trustworthy process than to any particular outcome. Process matters. Building a turstworthy process is just as important as the end result. So if you think you are too attached to the end result, find someone who will be process oriented and keep the group in an atmosphere that is productive and collaborative.
3) Go toward conflict rather than away from it. Conflict has a negative connotation - it assumes that call conflict is bad. Good conflict also exists! People can have different ideas and opinions that clash with each other - that is the space where real growth happens. Conflict feeds from a desire to change - just don't let the conflict boil over!
4) Give the group time to move into and out of the productive zone multiple times. The "productive zone" is a KLC term that basically means the atmosphere where the desire to make progress on the challenge(s) your team is working is operating at its best. This is an atmosphere that is sandwiched between a lack of productive conflict to drive action, and too much conflict that people are getting "burned" by high tension and emotion.
How does that apply to the trustworthy process? It means that human beings have their limitations. Work in the productive zone is hard and can be emotionally and mentally draining. Give the team a break periodically to celebrate the small victories, and time to reflect on what has been learned and accomplished.
5) Agendas and time boundaries help keep the heat productive. This basically means the good conflict that occurs in the aforementioned "productive zone" can be controlled better with agendas and time limitations. Have an outlined agenda to keep the conversation on track. Build in breaks, and have hard stop deadlines for your team to rely and depend on. Something as simple as honoring the timed breaks and end of conversations goes a long way for building a trustworthy process with your team.
6) If you have authority, use it to stimulate open and exploratory conversation. Whether you are facilitating the conversation or not, your authority - be it as formal manager of the team and/or your informal authority (or clout) with the team - can be used to keep the conversation from going off the rails. The goal is learning and discovery versus debate and arguments.
You have the ability to set the tone and atmosphere for the room - to help others feel empowered to see the conversation as an opportunity to learn and grow while finding potential solutions to the problems being sold. This is a time where you can influence others tovlet their judgements go, and participate in a way that is respected and considerate of the whole of the team versus the ego of the individual
By building a trustworthy process, you provide your team with the atmosphere, mindset, and tools to be at their very best.
*The full article on Create a Trustworthy Process can be found here.
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