What happens when a leader doesn’t trust their team? Or when their team doesn’t trust them, or each other? What happens to a business when the workplace is infected with distrust?
Nothing good.
What makes it worse is that distrust often goes undiscussed and unresolved. It’s an uncomfortable topic people tend to avoid. But the longer it’s left to fester, the more destruction it causes. Over time, it could lead to irreparable damage that may just spell the end of an entire organization.
What Is Distrust?
Distrust is defined as a lack of trust or confidence. In the workplace, this can look like:
- A team member not believing that their co-worker will get back to them in a timely manner
- A leader not having faith that their team will follow through on their assigned projects
- A superior refusing delegate as they do not trust their subordinates to complete tasks efficiently even when they’ve done so in the past
Keep in mind, distrust is not low trust, it’s NO trust. A complete lack of trust in any relationship can be dangerous, but in a professional working relationship, it can be seriously detrimental.
The Dangers of Distrust
Every organization relies on the quality of its relationships to operate efficiently, but when workers within an organization don’t trust each other, those vital relationships start to deteriorate. Over time, that distrust can cause:
- Frequent conflicts
- Disengagement
- Lower morale
- Loss of high performers
- High turnover
When left unchecked, distrust has the power to completely dismantle your organization from the inside out. It may start small, with gossip or rumors causing hesitation, but it can spiral out of control fast, leaving companies scrambling to recover.
What Causes Distrust?
There are a few reasons why distrust shows up in the workplace. Generally speaking, distrust stems from experiencing one or more many negative interactions within someone in the past. What makes these interactions negative can vary from situation to situation, but often, they’ll include one of the following:
- Dishonesty
- A lack of transparency
- Little to no follow through
- Disrespect/lack of empathy
- Toxic behavior that’s left uncorrected
For instance, if a colleague vehemently promises to respond to urgent emails within a week, but they fail to do so time and time again, it may lead to co-workers distrusting them.
5 Major Warning Signs of Distrust in the Workplace
Distrust doesn’t come out of nowhere. Broken promises add up. But luckily, there are a few red flags that businesses can be on the lookout to spot these negative interactions early and keep them from getting out of control.
1. High Levels of Tension or Conflict
Where there’s smoke, more often than not, there’s fire. If tensions seem high, you might want to take a closer look behind the curtain. A lack of trust may drive team members to be more skeptical of others, demonstrate more defensive behaviors or engage in unproductive arguments.
2. Poor Communication
If you distrust someone, chances are you’re not going to want to talk to them. You might notice teams with high distrust keep conversations to a minimum. If they do speak, they may have guarded conversations, keep secrets or flat out refuse to share crucial work-related
information with one another.
3. Limited Collaboration, If Any
Trust breeds collaboration, but distrust? Not so much. Teams who don’t trust one another may be unwilling to work together, leading to more work being done in isolation and less projects receiving the amount of attention they need. Necessary feedback for improvements will go unnoted and productivity will screech to a halt.
4. Micromanagement
Leaders who don’t trust their employees may resort to controlling or overseeing their work to an excessive extent. Some team members in non-leadership roles may take it upon themselves to micromanage their colleagues if they do not trust that they will get the job done right or on time.
5. Disengagement
Distrust can discourage employees from taking initiative, pursuing advancement opportunities, or even just participating much in the day-to-day. They might just “check out” entirely. Think about it: If you don’t trust that you will be adequately supported and valued in your efforts at work, how engaged would you be?
Tips to Combat Distrust Before It Spreads
If you’ve noticed signs of distrust creeping into your workplace, there’s a few things you can do to nip it in the bud before it becomes an unfixable problem:
1. Address Existing Problems Head-On
First and foremost, your team must address the issues that originally caused the distrust. Otherwise, unresolved conflicts will just continue and cause teams to develop deep seated resentment towards one another. Set aside time with your team to work through these problems and ensure everyone leaves feeling that their concerns were adequately addressed.
2. Encourage Open Communication
With the existing problems addressed, the next step is to chip away at the distrust left behind. The best way to do that is to urge your team to communicate any issues they’re experiencing openly and professionally moving forward. Transparency and honesty can do wonders for repairing relationships, creating psychologically safe environments and rebuilding trust.
3. Establish Accountability
To prevent issues from building distrust to begin with, build a culture of accountability. Ensure that everyone understands that they will be held personally responsible for their own tasks and behaviors in the workplace. With these parameters in place, teams will feel more empowered to take ownership of their work and more supported knowing leadership will correct other’s inappropriate or unproductive behaviors.
Battle Distrust With The Center for Leadership Studies
Whether you’ve noticed trust becoming an issue that’s impacting your workplace, or you’d simply like to learn better practices for building trust to prevent these issues from ever taking place, consider taking our course, Building Trust. It teaches leaders how to establish (and even repair) trust within their teams.