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Trustworthiness: All eyes are on you

Connection without trust is unlikely. Discover what our research shows and how to build trusting connections.

New research conducted by Truist Leadership Institute explores how executive connectedness—employees' perceptions of an executive’s trustworthiness, caring, and effective communications, creates impact. The result? When employees feel connected to executives, they are more engaged at work, more likely to stay, and more likely to engage in the organization’s purpose initiatives. Executive connectedness clearly creates positive organizational results.

Trustworthiness is a critical element of executive connectedness and deeply influences employees’ perceptions of your credibility and authenticity.  Why? Because all eyes are on you. Employees pay very close attention to what executives say and do. At Truist, we call this executive amplitude (Truist Leadership Institute, 2020). Employees constantly evaluate the trustworthiness of executive leaders. After all, those executives are making strategic bets for the company’s future. In fact, trustworthiness is so important that employees with high trust (vs. low) are 34% more engaged at work, 23% more likely to stay, and 13% more likely to pursue their company’s purpose. 

With all eyes on you, how can you demonstrate trustworthiness?

  1. Foster psychological safety. Employees feel psychologically safe when they can openly share ideas and be vulnerable. Make sure that everyone in your organization knows that their ideas and concerns can and must be shared—both to drive innovation and manage risk.
  2. Keep your word.  Do what you say you will do. Hold true to your promises for resources, employee compensation, and your own personal commitments. And if business conditions shift so that promises and commitments cannot be met, accept responsibility, and communicate with empathy.
  3. Demonstrate integrity in decisions. You will be called on to make some tough decisions. Wherever possible, share the decision-making process and the criteria that were considered. Involve stakeholders tasked with making decisions and the people impacted by those decisions. Communicate both the process and the final decision back to the organization with transparency.

Employees constantly watch, listen to, and learn from executives. They will mirror what they see you doing and pay attention to how teammates are rewarded.  All eyes are truly on you, and your careful demonstration of trustworthiness will help them connect to you. Trustworthiness, coupled with caring and effective communication, creates the executive connection that can increase employee engagement, retention, and commitment to the organization’s purpose. To learn more about Executive Connectedness, read the full Purple PaperSM.

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