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CHAPTER
4

HE TRUST OF CAPABILITY:
COMPETENCE TRUST

Have you ever felt micromanaged or underutilized because you were not able to use your talents to do your job in the way you know it needs to be done? Your education and years of experience are not valued, but are in fact devalued.

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Have you ever felt frustrated because the competence (or lack thereof) of another was inappropriately rewarded, when they were unworthy of the credit or promotion they were given and particularly when other teammates were more capable and deserving?

Have you ever felt concerned regarding the capability of a coworker? Do you have trust in the people who pass work to you? Do you believe you will receive the work in a form with which you can be successful? Do you have trust in the people to whom you hand off work? Do you think they will build on your good work or screw it up and make you all look bad?

WHAT IS COMPETENCE TRUST?

Whether the situation involves an employee-to-employee or employee-to-supervisor relationship, these utter frustrations, extreme disappointments, and grave concerns happen every day on the job. They result in underutilization of skills and abilities, breakdowns of confidence in others’ competence, decreased performance, and diminished competence trust.

As we will discuss further in this chapter, competence trust involves acknowledging people’s skills and abilities, allowing people to make decisions, involving others and seeking their input, and helping people learn skills. How we practice these behaviors demonstrates our willingness to trust our capability and that of others. Therefore, in our model we characterize Competence Trust as “Trust of Capability” (see Figure 1C).

Most people feel good about their ability to do whatever job they are assigned. Unless they are given feedback to the contrary, they will continue to believe this. If they suddenly receive negative feedback after a long period of doing the job with little or no feedback or primarily positive feedback, they may initially ignore or discount the new feedback and continue performing their jobs as they always have. This is because people’s sense of personal worth and identity is often directly linked to their competence in their jobs. The new information may not fit their picture of who they are and what they have to contribute.

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Usually people are motivated to develop competence in what they do and how they do it. Most people want and need to know they make a difference and contribute to the overall good of the organization. It is important for leaders to be aware of this fundamental need in people and to help people apply their abilities in meaningful ways to meet business challenges. By giving employees the freedom and flexibility to do the jobs they were hired to do rather than micromanaging them, leaders not only acknowledge employees’ skills and abilities but also increase their motivation and the performance of the organization.

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Competence trust is an absolute requirement if an organization is going to get any work done, whether that work is a specific task or a more complex combination of activities. People count on each other to be able to do their jobs. When people can’t count on one another to pull their own weight, and that lack of confidence is not appropriately addressed, then people’s expectations are not met, communication breaks down, and performance declines.

Quite often when we think of competence in the workplace, we think of the formal mechanisms on which we have become dependent to develop our workforce: personnel policies aimed at tracking people’s abilities and performance, and formal training programs designed to teach employees “what they need to know.” But competence is more than education and training programs; it is more than hiring and promotion policies; it is more than information, tools, and technology, important as they are.

An important component of competence trust is the ability of individuals to deal effectively with the demands and expectations placed on them by leadership, peers, customers, and the organization. This ability relates to the skills, knowledge, attitude, behavior, confidence, and experience aimed at fulfilling the responsibilities associated with defined roles and holding oneself accountable. Often we hear leaders lamenting, “I can’t trust my people in the field to do quality work. Why did I spend so much money training them? Didn’t they learn anything?”

Competence trust is found where leaders and employees learn from one another, where they learn from their customers, suppliers, and competitors. This kind of trust develops where communication trust is strong, where information exchange is easy and open—up, down, across, inside, and outside the organization; and where contractual trust is prevalent, where leaders and employees are clear about what is expected of them and live up to those expectations.

You know competence trust when you experience it. You see it, feel it, and hear it. People respond swiftly to requests for information; they provide assistance with a complicated project without hesitation; they answer questions or concerns regarding an issue directly and candidly. Competence trust starts and finishes with knowledgeable people who are highly responsible, who hold themselves accountable, who are committed to continuous improvement, and who are aligned with the objectives and needs of their organization.

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But what happens when there is a breakdown in communication and contractual trust, when communication is strained and information exchange is diminished? When people are not clear about what is expected of them and have difficulty living up to those expectations? Breakdowns of contractual and communication trust lead to breakdowns of competence trust. The boss may lack competence trust in those she supervises, fearing they haven’t the capability to do the job at the level of quality expected. Likewise, her employees may have issues with her, perceiving her as not being a capable leader with knowledge and skills and from whom they can learn. Neither the supervisor nor the employees are meeting each other’s expectations. There is a breakdown in performance in both directions. So what can we do?

BEHAVIORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO COMPETENCE TRUST

Leaders and employees can practice four primary behaviors to build and maintain competence trust in their organizations. Let’s look at each.

Acknowledge People’s Skills and Abilities

Do we acknowledge coworkers’ ability to do their jobs? Do we give them guidance and direction to get the job done right? Do we give them the room to grow? Do we allow people the freedom and flexibility to do the jobs their way?

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Respecting people’s knowledge, skills, and abilities allows them to use their existing talents and to learn new skills to accomplish the goals they were hired to accomplish. Allowing people to do their jobs and to grow in those jobs is critical to keeping employees engaged. The leader’s role is to keep people motivated by challenging them and giving them opportunities to increase their skills and knowledge.

When we acknowledge people’s competence, we are actually providing a form of feedback. We are letting them know that we see what they have to offer and are therefore providing them with opportunities to use their talents. We thus build both competence trust and communication trust. Trust within the relationship grows, and the individual’s trust in himself or herself is deepened.

Fredrick, a competent engineer, was promoted to a managerial position. For years he had enjoyed the hands-on fieldwork of his job. He liked having complete control of the projects assigned to him. Now, as manager, he has added administrative functions to his responsibilities. Fredrick doesn’t have time for hands-on contact with the projects for which he is responsible, but he wishes he did. He is having a hard time delegating to his employees. He wants to delegate but has concerns about their abilities, and he is not taking the time to train them. When he does delegate projects, he is constantly looking over employees’ shoulders, telling them what to do.

Fredrick has a higher readiness to trust himself than he has to trust others. Should this situation continue unchanged, Fredrick’s hesitancy to trust his people will make it difficult for them to trust him. Remember, we have to give trust to get trust!

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Do you trust in people’s competence to do the task, to get the job done? Trusting people’s knowledge, skills, and abilities is reflected in a willingness to allow them to use their talents to accomplish goals. Fredrick’s challenge is to learn to trust his people to do their jobs and to grow in those jobs. It is important to be aware of your hesitancy to trust and need to control, if you have them, and of the impact of your attempts at controlling employees instead of trusting them. The more you trust them, the less need there is for control.

As you develop your people, they demonstrate your trust in their capabilities. You are actually investing in them and the relationship, and there are rewards. In your effort to invest in the development of your people’s competence, you are in turn developing your own. As they grow and develop, so do you. As they assume additional responsibilities, you further explore professional interests and further develop your competence and trust as a mentor.

People with limited trust in themselves may not view themselves as competent. They may be unaware of their potential. When you see the potential in people, it allows you to trust in their potential competence. You provide them with a remarkable gift. For when you trust in them, you open the door for them to trust in themselves, for them to discover themselves further. With this foundation in place and with support and guidance, people flourish. Giving employees freedom and flexibility within clear parameters and trusting them to do their jobs pay dividends—to you, to them, and to the organization. It enables them to accomplish more than they may ever have expected. Their competence is enriched, and their capacity for trust expands.

When leaders trust in employees’ competence instead of micromanaging, they give their employees the freedom and latitude to do their jobs. Under these circumstances, trust is more than reciprocated. Employees will usually exceed the leader’s expectations. “A while back,” a manager with a large consulting firm said, “I gave a junior team member the task of making a proposal presentation to a prospective client. Not being fully aware of his abilities, I took a risk; it took some trust. It was a long shot. However, the junior team member was highly motivated and did a lot of work in preparation for the event. He made a great presentation, and we got the contract. He actually exceeded my expectations and hopes. It took a leap of faith on my part.” This leader gave trust and was not disappointed in return. He, the junior team member, and the organization benefited.

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But what about the times when it doesn’t work out, when you trust your employee with a major project and he or she drops the ball? How should you handle the situation? Obviously, you must review each situation individually and “with open eyes” to determine whom you can trust with what. You need to listen to yourself and follow your intuition. Sometimes we may trust in a person’s competence more than he or she does. That is a situation ripe for your coaching.

Larry, vice president and comptroller for a dynamic restaurant group known for excellence, shares a hard lesson he learned: “Having competence trust is not blind trust—you’ve got to follow your intuition. I allowed Susan, who was outwardly very confident, to ‘snow’ me. Susan’s confidence overshadowed a slipshod approach to her books. I trusted her, but I should have followed my instincts. She didn’t perform up to my expectations.” By the time Larry realized Susan was not performing up to par, it was almost too late. The books were due, and Larry’s appointee had failed to deliver. Larry reflects, “The lesson for me is ‘Do not be afraid to confront.’ A lot of external distractions clouded my intuition. Because of my trust in this employee, I made an assumption, that Susan should know how to do this closing. Her assertiveness and confidence I mistook for competence. I needed to trust my intuition.”

This story illustrates the hard lesson we all need to learn, some of us time and time again: when we don’t listen to our inner voice, we betray ourselves.

Trusting in your own competence is directly related to the need to trust your intuition. Your beliefs about your abilities have a profound effect on those abilities. If you believe you have the competence and the confidence to meet certain goals for yourself, that belief will influence your success.

Your readiness to trust in your competence starts with your readiness and willingness to trust yourself. This also influences how trusting you are of others. Your readiness and willingness to trust influences your beliefs and perceptions about yourself and others. “If I see myself as trustworthy, I project that,” a health care human resource manager observed. “My self-concept and worldview determine how trustingly I view others.”

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Risk taking, essential to business success, is directly related to trust in our own competence. Trust in our competence influences our thoughts regarding our ability to keep up with the changing demands of our jobs. We question, “Can I keep up? Can I learn the new system? Do I have what it takes?” In low-trust work environments, people are reluctant to take risks and admit mistakes for fear of looking incompetent. Working in this type of environment, an individual may over time begin to doubt or question his or her competence.

Margaret was her own worst critic. She was afraid of taking a risk for fear of making a mistake. When she did make a mistake, she would repeatedly beat up on herself. She didn’t want to let the team down, yet her fear of letting the team down paralyzed her. She was so focused on the fear—in a way, she trusted her fear instead of trusting herself—that she continued to fail. Her supervisor asked if he could coach Margaret, and Margaret reluctantly acquiesced. “I urged her to stay in the present,” her supervisor said, “to focus on the objectives, not on the obstacles, and to use the help of her teammates.” As Margaret began to focus on the present and ask for help from her teammates, she started to make some progress. She started to trust herself and her teammates more—though not without occasional slip-ups. Ultimately, she was successful in accomplishing one major task and then another and another. She started to gain a sense of success and then pride in following through and accomplishing her goals. That was over a year ago. Margaret continues to grow, step-by-step, learning more about herself, trusting more in herself. Her confidence in her competence grows each day.

For the first time in her life, somebody took the time and patience to work with Margaret and to trust in her capability and potential. As a result of her supervisor’s efforts and his trust in her, Margaret began to blossom. Sometimes another person’s trust in us gives us the courage to trust in ourselves.

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Allow People to Make Decisions

Do we allow people the freedom and flexibility to make decisions? Or, if we are not able to, do we at least include them in the major decisions, particularly those that affect their jobs and their lives? By allowing people to make decisions, we are giving them a chance to use their judgment to make choices that affect their work. When people are not included, they feel left out, discounted, devalued, and disempowered. Managers must trust themselves enough to let someone else make a decision. Part of this trust is managers’ ability to handle an incorrect decision being made by another.

Sometimes you may not have prior experience on which to base a determination of an employee’s competence, to assess whether you can trust that person’s judgment. This is especially the case in a relatively new relationship, such as when working with new employees or perhaps when working on new projects with experienced employees. In these times, you must use your best judgment and trust it. When you make a judgment call, when you trust, it means that you empower employees to make decisions within the scope of their responsibilities, to the best of their ability, without encumbering them with your insecurities. Drawing on your judgment to trust their competence positions them to make a full contribution, to learn, grow, and further develop their competence. In this ever changing, competitive business landscape, leaders have got to develop and fully utilize their people’s abilities. If leaders don’t, they will lose their good people and demotivate and disempower the rest. An organization can’t stay competitive with a disenfranchised and disempowered workforce.

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Involve Others and Seek Their Input

Think of an occasion when someone asked for your advice or opinion. How did it feel? Pretty good? When you involve or seek the involvement of others, you demonstrate your trust in their competence.

Do you involve coworkers in planning, decision making, and problem solving related to the scope of their job responsibilities and your stated expectations of their performance? Do you allow your employees to discuss and even challenge your decisions with the intent of achieving what is best for the organization? When employees feel safe enough to challenge your decisions (in appropriate and respectful ways), this is an indication of the trust that exists in the relationship. Likewise, when people don’t feel safe because of negative past experiences that diminished or broke their trust, they don’t seek those people’s input or involve them in decision making or problem solving. Their willingness to engage with others in dialogue to seek their views and to explore possible alternatives depends on the degree of confidence and safety they feel toward others.

We often hear employees voice resignation and frustration about not having input. From factory floors to high-rise offices, we hear employees say, “Either they don’t trust us or they figure we don’t have anything to contribute, so they don’t ask us,” or “Nobody ever asks me what I think!” When their ideas have not been solicited or, worse yet, when they have been solicited but not valued, people feel betrayed. The failure to recognize or value a person’s actual or potential competence is a betrayal of both the individual and the organization: the individual is cut off from the opportunity to make a full contribution, and the organization is robbed of that individual’s full talent. What a waste of human talent, a loss of human motivation and unachieved potential!

A leader must have enough self-trust and self-confidence in order to involve others and ask for their input. We have seen managers who would not turn to their employees for input or participation because they feared their subordinates might surpass them if they learned the “secrets” necessary to be a part of whatever process. The managers just did not have enough self-confidence that they would succeed using this approach.

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In contrast, when we seek the input of others and involve them in problem solving and decision making, the benefits are multifold: we acknowledge their contribution, we gain from their expertise, and we empower the relationship. “Allow employees to take ownership and have pride in their work,” advised a manufacturing vice president. “Challenge their thought processes. Give people the stimulus to do things.” When you seek out the input of others, you demonstrate your trust in their competence. In return, you gain from their advice and enhance the trust between you and them. Trusting in people’s ability deepens their sense of ownership and accomplishment in their work. Furthermore, you build a foundation of trust in the relationship. Their trust in themselves and your trust in them and yourself expand.

Help People Learn Skills

Investing in people is a powerful way to demonstrate your trust in their capacity to develop their competence. As mentors, leaders need to find out about what motivates people and to work with them to develop their capacity and potential. Doing so enhances employees’ development of trust in their own competence and hence their performance. Trust in leaders grows when employees are supported in gaining relevant knowledge and skills and in applying them on the job.

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During our interviews with senior executives, they spoke of the changing work contract. They spoke of the struggle they face regarding what they can and cannot guarantee their employees. Long-term job security no longer exists. Assisting their employees to develop competence is one aspect many leaders said they could guarantee. One senior manager at the corporate headquarters of a large chemical manufacturing company tells his employees, “I can’t guarantee you job security, but I can guarantee that I will try my hardest to make you all you can be.” Another seasoned manager said, “There is no such thing as job security anymore. The only form of job security I can give them is for them to learn more skills than they have now.”

Although leaders may not be able to guarantee jobs for life, they can make a commitment to develop their people. Leaders who do make that commitment make a wide array of developmental tools available: training programs, outside workshops or conferences, or visits to other organizations to observe their methods and practices. Many leaders enable employees to continue their formal education or to receive assistance from a professional coach. Leaders may ask individuals to head up a special project or provide a promotional opportunity as a further means of developing employees’ skills and experience.

Leaders have an obligation to develop employees, and those employees in return have an obligation to pursue their own growth and development. “Leaders need to get their people to be more empowered,” said one chemical plant manager. “To do so, individuals need to take responsibility for their own person. They need to be in touch with themselves and their needs. They need to make choices (with eyes wide open) to get their needs met versus blindly trusting in the organizations [in which they work] to get their needs met.” When people see others highly involved in their own personal development, they tend to be more trusting of their competence.

Yet how do we engage employees who are not motivated in their jobs? Many people in organizations (particularly the aging baby boomers) are at the top or near the top of their careers. A good number of these “corporate soldiers” have already hit the R.O.A.D. (retired on active duty); they do what they have to in order to get by—no more, no less. How do we appeal to their interests in developing their skills and abilities? How do we bring them back and utilize their wealth of knowledge in the few years they have before retirement?

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Giving these employees money bonuses, letters of appreciation, or employee-of-the-month recognition probably will have little or no effect. What is critical is finding out what is important to them as individuals. Can we sit down with them and find out what motivates them? Can we give these employees training incentives or retrain them to create job opportunities within and outside their department to help them better themselves?

When leaders trust in their people’s competence, they influence and empower their employees to go beyond their current beliefs about their personal limitations. Employees’ readiness to trust in themselves and others expands. The development of people’s competence can be thrilling and exciting for all involved. It can also be quite challenging. Leaders and employees alike know that to develop the capacity of their organizations, there must be opportunities to stretch and grow, they often find themselves driven by day-to-day pressures and demands and therefore feel as though they “can’t afford the time” to invest in development. Yet, leaders must make the time to develop their people’s competence in order to grow the capacity of the organization—for the immediate and long term future.

A leader’s ability to develop the competence of employees and thereby develop the capacity of the organization is critical to the organization’s maintaining a competitive edge. Effective leaders create environments where people are not afraid to take risks and tackle new areas and new ways of doing things.

In developing competence trust in their organizations, effective leaders create the psychological as well as the physical safety for people to stretch themselves to accomplish business objectives. Within these safe boundaries, people are able to focus on what they were hired to do: produce products and services and satisfy customers.

“Create the space so that people can find out for themselves and learn. They may not get it right the first time, but they will get there,” said a senior manager for an international chemical company. People need the freedom and the flexibility to learn from their mistakes. People’s trust in their competence and in their leaders grows. Conversely, when the organizational environment does not support people’s learning from their mistakes, competence trust in themselves and their leaders dwindles.

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When there is fear in the workplace, people’s readiness and willingness to trust their competence diminishes. They are unwilling or, as in the Dilbert cartoon, unable to exercise their given talents and realize their performance potential. Hindered or frozen by fear, their willingness to be creative and innovative shuts down. These people feel betrayed by the organization in which they work

In dealing with these challenges, it is easy to get discouraged. Leaders, however, cannot give up on people or themselves when disappointed in performance. If someone is not living up to performance expectations, it is a leader’s job to continue to nurture the person’s potential and to trust in the person’s ability. Being an effective leader means being able to reach out to each individual, to develop people’s strengths and work with their weaknesses. Competence trust is about trusting where people are and trusting where they have the potential to be.

DEALING WITH DISAPPOINTMENT

There are times when we are disappointed in a person’s performance. “I asked you to do X; you gave it your best effort but came up short. I am disappointed.” When that occurs, is their behavior a betrayal? When a person has honestly tried to accomplish a task but failed because of lack of skill or aptitude, we may feel let down, but their behavior is not a betrayal. It is not a betrayal in that they were not acting in a self-serving manner. They simply did their best. (If, however, the individual did have the ability but chose not to use that talent, it is a betrayal. Knowingly failing to meet expectations is an intentional breach of contractual trust.)

Leaders may be disappointed, even frustrated, by an employee’s performance, but they must continue to provide support, which can take the form of helping the person see how he or she can enter into similar situations differently in the future or how the person may tap into others and surround himself or herself with the skills and support needed to be successful.

An old Chinese proverb is as true today as ever: “If you want one year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want ten years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want one hundred years of prosperity, grow people.”

Contributing to the growth of others starts with our being aware of how we bring ourselves to our relationships with them. Do we behave as though we are second guessing what they are able to do? Do we hold back our trust? Through reflecting on these questions we may find that we need to shift and be open to trusting others more fully, which will allow us to see and reframe habits, thoughts, and perceptions that have caused us to hold back. We will then be able to choose to behave differently, in a way that serves us and our relationships.

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Leaders’ acknowledging employees’ skills and abilities, allowing them to make decisions, involving them and seeking their input in planning and decision making, and helping them learn new skills—all these daily behaviors develop employees’ capacity to contribute, leaders’ capacity to develop others, and the organization’s capacity to perform. The more we trust in our employees, the more trust they have in us. This level of trust gives birth to limitless possibilities.

TRUST BUILDING IN ACTION

Reflecting on Your Experience

1. Where in your personal and work life do you experience high levels of competence trust?
2. Of the four behaviors that contribute to competence trust, choose one or two that you feel represent opportunities for you to build more trust in your relationships with others.
   • Acknowledge people’s skills and abilities
   • Allow people to make decisions
   • Involve others and seek their input
   • Help people learn skills

Application Exercises

A. The following questions are intended to facilitate dialogue as a team. Reflect on the following behaviors that create competence trust. Share those thoughts with your teammates. Observe how you practice each of these behaviors and its impact on competence trust.

1. Where in your personal and work life do you experience high levels of competence trust in yourself? In others?
2. 73Do you acknowledge your own knowledge, skills, and abilities? What happens when you feel less trust in your own or someone else’s competence?
3. Are you reluctant to give others a chance to perform because you fear their failure? How do those decisions affect your workload? How might you help create situations where others have a much better chance of succeeding?
4. Do you allow others to make decisions, or do you assume that no one can make decisions as good as yours? How does this affect your trust in the competence of others?
5. How do you involve others in matters that affect them? In what ways do you seek their input? When you do, what is the effect on your trust in their competence? On their trust in their own competence?
6. In what ways do you develop your own skills? What actions do you take that help others develop their skills? What might you do differently in the future to enhance skill building even more?

B. Each One Teach One. This is a method of cross-training in which people proficient or experienced in certain skills contract with their coworkers to teach them skills they need. This approach is also useful when people go to outside training and come back and train their peers in what they learned. Teaching others what we learn challenges us to “know our stuff,” helping us internalize and integrate our learning. It encourages sharing of information and expertise that builds competence trust and support in each other, while also developing the capacity of the team and maximizing the training dollar investment.

Instructions:

1. The next time you attend a training session, contract with a coworker who did not attend the session to teach him or her what you learned.
2. After completion of the training, review the material covered and prepare an outline of the key knowledge and skills learned.
3. Set up blocks of uninterrupted time to share what you learned with your coworker. Check for clarity and understanding as you proceed through the process.
4. 74Brainstorm ways each of you can support each other in applying the new knowledge on the job.

C. Create Learning Contracts. Employing learning contracts with people in training programs or in on-the-job training helps ensure application of skills and increases competence trust among team members. The following illustration is a sample matrix of questions people address prior to engaging in a specific learning process. It formally outlines skills and knowledge they want or need to learn to do their current job or take on additional responsibilities, resources they will use to acquire the skills and knowledge, projected dates to learn skills or have a basic understanding of the knowledge, and application of learning.

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Instructions:

1. Use the learning contract here as a tool for professional development.
2. After an employee returns from training, have him fill out the form and meet with him to discuss his learning plans.
3. Follow up with the employee to support him in his learning process.

Trust Note

People often measure their sense of personal worth and identity by their competence in their jobs. Most people want and need to know they make a difference and contribute to the overall good of the organization. Help people apply their abilities in meaningful ways to meet business challenges.