Trust deficit in professional relationship management

Mr. Jaideep was sitting before his computer drafting his resignation letter. His close colleagues were trying to pacify his anger and were dissuading him from putting his papers.

“No question of rethinking. How can I work with a person who cannot be trusted? It will land me in more serious difficulties in future.” Jaideep tried to argue out his case.

This happened after the closed-door meeting of the Chairman of the group with the senior management team. Jaideep was a part of the team.

“How did you take this decision, Mr. Jaideep?” asked the chairman.

“But, Sir, I had consulted and discussed with you before I took this decision.”

“No. You didn’t. You never brought it to my attention.”

Jaideep was shocked. He had discussed elaborately about the decision he wanted to take and its consequences. Mr. Vibodh, Chairman had patiently listened to him and had remarked “of course, sometimes we need to take a risk. Go ahead.”

And now, he flatly disagreed with the decision and told in the meeting that there was no evidence of any discussion of Mr. Jaideep with him.

When Jaideep had asked whether he should go on record about the decision, Mr. Vibodh had remarked “Well, dear some of these things should be informal. Don’t you trust me?”

Trust deficit in professional relationships is indeed a disease and oftentimes destroys the relationship profile not only between two concerned individuals but in the line behavior of the members of a team in an organization.

Trust deficit displayed by the team-heads, leaders, and other seniors (and sometimes, the reverse osmosis could occur) who are involved in managing risk profiles of the organization either in policy or finances is indeed a concern which an organization should learn to deal with. Several of the complaints of the victims of trust deficit either go unheard due to lack of clear evidences or other organizational or HR priorities. It impacts both the individual as well as collective performances when critical growth of the organization is handled in different facets of the organization.

Many times, when legal complications arise out of decisions taken or practices newly introduced, some of the team heads or leaders tend to play safe withdrawing their role play in the entire gamut of operations.

Some reasons for this kind of an attitude could be attributed to:

a.   Poverty of management/leadership skills

b.   Fear of loss of profile/glory

c.   Insecurity of their job

d.   Low self-esteem

e.   Lack of skills in managing challenges

f.    Inability to admit failure

g.   Absence of Crisis management skills

A few other reasons could also be attributed.

Let me refer the case of Nitin who was a senior member of the management team. As he always used to take abundant caution in his functional strategies, he had got the decision approved by his Vice-president. But when certain legal complications arose about the decision, he went to discuss with the boss along with the concerned papers.

“Nitin, I am a bit busy now, please leave the papers on the table and let me examine. We will discuss in the late evening.”

Till late evening, as Nitin did not get a call, he asked the VP “Can I come to discuss about the papers which I had left on your table.”

“Which papers are you talking about Nitin? There are no papers on the table.”

Well, Nitin was shocked. Such anecdotes are not far and few.

Trust deficit goes sometimes hand-in hand with unethical behaviour. Many times, the victims of trust deficit in relationships are mute witnesses of anarchy and irresponsible behavior of the leadership.

Dr. Maney Steil says in his book “Listening Leaders” - The challenge of establishing trusting relationships takes time, for trust does not sprout quickly or automatically last forever. Rather it emerges over time and requires careful ongoing attention."

The victim of the trust-deficit sometimes takes things silently and holds the view of what Friedrich Nietzche said: I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset at from now on I can't believe you.” 

Building trusting relationships is very important in an organizational environment. In the current workstations, where a lot of work is done more as a team, a conducive trusting work environment is critical for the health of the organization. Leadership and Management training in organizations should address to this fragile, yet, critical component of a good leadership.