Metrics-Blog 2 BUILDING TRUST

In this Blog assignment, I want to look at trust and how it is very much integrated into the employment relationship. My first thought was what is trust...what is it really? I looked at Silzer and Dowell (2010) and read about trust, which is that trust "...must be real, pervasive and here and now" and that it is the foundation of the employment relationship (p. 133). Our stakeholders need to know that our agenda, whatever it is, is focused on the health and welfare of the corporation. No matter what our role is for our organization, the relationship that we have with those in charge  and each other has to be based on our credibility and of course trust because we will be given confidences and we could be privy to confidential information (p. 727). "Without trust, you get shut out of critical discussions..." (p. 740). So, how do we build this trust? First is credibility and as I have mentioned before, speak their language. Know what I am talking about, speak clearly, get to the point, speak confidently and openly and if "...organizations do not know what difference their training makes," I had better know how and why my recommendations are going to make a difference (Griffin, 2010, p. 3). 

I can also build trust by regular and/or frequent communication with those I am reporting to and give them measurable progress. What also comes to mind is that many stakeholders are men, or at least many of them are in my field and they don’t have time for indecision. As a woman, this means that I present my ideas, get to the point, have suggestions for solving the challenges that I present and ask for their input. This relationship of trust is built over time and by experiences. To overcome distrust, maybe it would be good to talk about the distrust instead of avoiding the topic. Start with little projects and build from there. Maybe mistrust will always be there because HR is seen as a “different kind of animal,” however, this is where persistence is important. Some stakeholders will be willing to trust and those relationships can be built as we work on building our relationships with managers and others.

 Resources

Griffin, R. P. (2010). Means and ends: Effective training evaluation. Industrial and Commercial Training, 42(4), 220-225. doi:10.1108/00197851011048582

Silzer, R., & Dowell, B. E. (Eds.). (2010). Strategy-driven talent management: A leadership imperative. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.