Page 225 - Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles

196 Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work

• Demonstrating or stating distrust of others
• Failing to safeguard confidential information
• Second-guessing one’s work, judgment, or decision
• Making decisions that impact a person’s job without
consultation
• Restructuring implied or actual commitments regarding
issues such as health care, retirement benefits, pensions,
bonuses, pay increases, vacation time, or work hours
• Any form of unfair, biased, or preferential treatment,
such as holding people to different standards, unfair
distribution of work, and allowing exceptions for one
employee but not another
• Performance reviews perceived as inaccurate and/or not
objective

Best Practices and

Turnkey Strategies for

Rebuilding Trust

Most would agree that once trust is broken, it is difficult to
repair. Some would say it’s impossible. One of the biggest prob-
lems with breaking trust is that you may never know what
caused it to break, as the offended party may not disclose the
incident to you. I suggest that if you see a significant change
in the way an employee relates to you (e.g., stops confiding in
you) that you have a conversation in which you acknowledge the
change in behavior and ask if you have done anything to com-
promise the relationship.
The following list of strategies can help mend a relationship.
It is essential that these be implemented with great sincerity
and genuineness. If you really have no interest in repairing the