A critical aspect of the Stakeholder Influence and Mapping Processes (outlined in Influential Leadership: Chapter 7) is determining the extent to which trust exists in your stakeholder relationships. This means, do you trust them, and do they trust you?
For instance, potential indicators that they do not trust you include …
- Being cautious and acting suspiciously.
- Being dishonest with you.
- Partial disclosure of information
- Misinforming or omitting important facts.
- Giving you false deadlines.
- Asking others to do what they have already asked you to do.
- Going behind your back.
On the other hand, if you see the following, trust is likely to be quite high …
- Telling the truth, even if it hurts (them or your).
- Sharing sensitive information with you.
- No secrets, especially with insights which you could use to their disadvantage.
- Being predictable and reliable — and managing your expectations when they can’t deliver.
- Doing what they say they’re going to do.
- Giving bad news early.
These are only some initial clues to get you started.
Think of a key stakeholder that you have within your sights and estimate the level of trust they have in you based on the clues shown here. Now, put yourself in their shoes and estimate the level of trust they feel you are giving them based on your performance against the clues given above.
Do this for all of your key stakeholders and then think of what action you might be able to take to raise the levels of trust within your relationship with them.