In the fast-paced world of business, one of the most significant challenges for leaders and CEOs is learning to trust their managers. It’s a hurdle that, once overcome, can lead to greater efficiency, innovation, and success. In this blog, we will delve deeper into the steps and mindset shifts necessary to cultivate trust in your management team.
1. Hiring and Onboarding: Laying the Foundation
The journey to trust begins with hiring the right people. This process is more than just filling a position; it’s about finding individuals who resonate with your company’s values and culture. A thorough hiring process involves:
- Defining Clear Job Descriptions – Be specific about the skills, experience, and personality traits you’re looking for. This clarity helps attract candidates who are genuinely suited for the role.
- Structured Interviews – Have a series of interviews, starting from phone screening to in person interviews. I really like to use a mix of behavioral and situational questions to gauge how candidates have handled past challenges and how they might approach new ones. This is a bit of an art because the questions you ask really needs to be tailored to the candidates experience and what you’re trying to to tease out of them.
- Cultural Fit Assessments – Evaluate how well a candidate’s values align with your company culture. This can involve team interviews or even trial periods.
Once hired, a comprehensive onboarding process is crucial. Effective onboarding helps new managers understand their roles, the company’s expectations, and how they can best contribute to the organization’s goals.
2. Empower Their Decision-Making: Trust Their Expertise
Managers are hired for their expertise and perspective. As long as you’ve done a good job in your recruiting process, then you should have the faith that you have the best candidate available at the time. So, now, it’s time to let go and give them a chance to prove themself. Trusting them means allowing them to make decisions within their domain. This involves:
- Setting Clear Boundaries – As their superior, your responsibility is to give them the overall objective and define the scope of their decision-making authority. Clear boundaries prevent overreach and ensure accountability.
- Encouraging Initiative – Foster a culture where managers feel comfortable making recommendations and taking the lead on projects. This empowers them to bring their best ideas forward.
3. Healthy Debates: Constructive Conflict
Disagreements can be productive if handled correctly. When you don’t agree with a manager’s recommendation, approach the situation with an open mind:
- Foster Open Communication – Create an environment where managers feel safe to express differing opinions. Encourage honest and respectful discussions. A big tip for this is to always make it about the situation and not the person. If you can communicate this, and demonstrate it in your own debates, then your manager can feel safe.
- Focus on Solutions – Rather than dwelling on disagreements, work collaboratively to find the best solution. This might involve compromise or innovative thinking to merge different ideas. All decisions should be about the greater good of the company, letting go of the specific department you or your manager may be responsible for.
- Support the Final Decision – Once a decision is made, support it fully, even if it wasn’t your first choice. This unified front shows confidence in your team’s judgment.
4. Support Their Ideas: Show Your Trust
Assuming you’ve had a good debate and discussion to come up with a solution and that you’re fully bought in to the final decision, then you need to back your managers’ ideas. This demonstrates trust and builds their confidence. Here’s how you can show support:
- Public Endorsement – Publicly acknowledge and praise their good ideas and successful projects. This not only boosts their morale but also signals to the rest of the team that you trust your managers.
- Constructive Feedback – When ideas don’t work out, provide constructive feedback rather than criticism. Focus on learning and improvement.
5. Avoid Micromanaging: Let Them Lead
Micromanagement can stifle a manager’s growth and lead to frustration and disengagement. To avoid this pitfall:
- Delegate Effectively – Clearly define tasks and expected outcomes, then step back and let your managers handle the execution.
- Check-In Regularly, Not Constantly – Regular check-ins are important, but they should be balanced. Set periodic meetings to discuss progress and address any concerns without hovering over every detail. One of the things I do with my managers is blocking out a regular 1-1 meeting time in my calendar so that they always have access to me on a weekly basis.
- Encourage Independence: Allow managers to make mistakes and learn from them. This builds their problem-solving skills and resilience.
Breaking Free from the Vortex
The ultimate goal is to free yourself from the day-to-day operations and focus on strategic growth. By trusting your managers, you create a self-sufficient team capable of driving the business forward without constant oversight. This not only benefits your managers by giving them room to grow but also allows you to concentrate on high-level strategy and expansion opportunities.
You’ve invested time and effort into finding the right managers. Now it’s time to let them thrive. Trusting your managers is not just about delegating tasks but about empowering them to lead, innovate, and contribute meaningfully to your company’s success.
If you’ve been too tied down by your business and want to start letting go, reach out to me and I’ll be happy to help you with the process. I’ve been there 15 years ago and now have a team that I trust fully to run my businesses.
