The Spirit of Appreciation in Building Trust

As a leader, you entrust your team members to complete tasks. You can do this by deciding that your approach to the task is right or you can trust your people to accomplish the task from their strengths lens or perspective.

Adopting a Strategic Interdependence Mindset is a choice you can make to support and trust the strengths of the people on your team to get the job done.

There’s a saying in Leadership:
“It is not about you and all about you”.

The leadership mindset you adopt is critical to building a culture of trust and allowing everyone to contribute their best through their strengths.

This is part 2 in the 3-part series on your Trust Quotient by Diana Gabriel, Certified Strengths Strategy Coach.

Appreciate and value your people and their trust in you will grow. Click To Tweet

Do you exhibit a spirit of appreciation? People tend to find it easier to trust you as a leader when their gifts, talents, and contributions are noticed, acknowledged and appreciated. If this is not top-of-mind, consider this next step in raising your trust quotient.

As I wrote about in my last post, one of the primary leadership mindsets needed to establish and build trust is an authentic focus on people through four basic elements. The first is offering a helping hand.

The second basic element…
A Spirit of Appreciation and Recognition
Your people need to know they matter somehow, that their work has value and is contributing to the greater good of the company’s vision or purpose. Your people all seek meaning and purpose in their work, whether they consciously recognize it or not.

Being valued for who they are and what they contribute is critical to self-worth, self-confidence, and self-esteem. Without this people are neither confident in their ability nor motivated to accomplish their responsibilities and to be successful.

As a leader, if you acknowledge the contributions of your people and show that you appreciate them, you’re telling them they are adding value to the team and the success of the organization. When you affirm their importance to the organization, and their significance to you as their leader, your people will respond by valuing their relationship with you and in turn, extend you and others their trust.

You can demonstrate that you value your people simply by showing an interest in knowing their interests and more about their lives. Most people generally respond well to this, but only if it’s sincere and genuine. Faking it will be recognized, and the outcome will be worse than not attempting at all.

I suggest you get to know your people, their interests, and aspirations. Establish a relationship with your people by understanding what they need to excel with their strengths, and care enough to provide it if possible. You’re telling them that they are important enough to step up for and offer the kind of help only someone in your position of leadership can provide.

Often overlooked (or neglected) is the acknowledgment of their successes and celebrating with them. In the Entrepreneur Magazine article 9 Tests Every Leader Must Pass, Alan Zimmerman describes the importance of not only highlighting your people’s success but also rewarding it appropriately. These are powerful ways to express your appreciation of the value each person contributes to the team and making the team successful. Appreciate and value your people and their trust in you will grow.

Do you take the time to notice and acknowledge the contributions of individual team members? Do you demonstrate a spirit of appreciation? I’d love to hear from you. You can reach me here and on LinkedIn.