Page 100 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

trust or Bust � 79

takes extra effort, and the consequences, good or bad, are magnified.
Trust reduces transaction costs, increases productivity, makes com-
munication easier with less need to over explain situations, reinforces
interpersonal relationships, supports employee motivation, and allows
work to be delegated with confidence.
Lack of trust, on the other hand, leads to the rumor mill, politi-
cal manipulation, lack of loyalty; employee beliefs about management
“cheating” and taking advantage of them; leader beliefs that employ-
ees are loafing, hoarding information (or sharing that information
with competitors), and turnover; and people watching out for their
own backs instead of watching your back.

` relAtIonshIps

More than anything, trust is about building relationships with peo-
ple. Over time, as those relationships become strong, trust becomes
something of value in your organization. Don Cohen and Laurence
Prusak dedicated an entire chapter to the topic of trust in their book,
In Good Company: How Social Capital Makes Organizations Work, and
say that “social capital depends on trust. The relationships, commu-
nities, cooperation, and mutual commitment that characterize social
capital could not exist without a reasonable level of trust. . . . We see
trust as a necessary condition of social capital, and its natural starting
point.” Leaders today realize more than ever that social capital pro-
7
vides sustainable competitive advantage to organizations that need an
edge when everything else seems readily available for purchase. You
can’t buy trust—you have to earn it.
The strength of those relationships, built on trust, will determine
how information will be shared and its quality, the risks people will
take for the organization and its people, the loyalty they will dem-
onstrate, and the tightness of purpose they will share to accomplish
goals. For teams working at a distance, these relationships are critical
for long-term success.