Page 111 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

90 � mAnAgIng the moBIle workForCe

mistrust of employees’ competence and commitment. It overempha-
sizes sanctions as a way of forcing compliance. The question should
be more: how do we create a high-trust, low-fear culture? In such an
environment, information is widely shared, contentious opinions are
freely expressed, and risk taking is encouraged because mistrust de-
moralizes and fear paralyzes.” 17
Clearly, when working with someone new, you’ll have to cali-
brate how much direction and support he or she will need. We talk
in Chapter 11 about the importance of establishing protocols, proce-
dures, and other ways of working together early in the team develop-
ment process. Beware, however, of carrying these efforts too far, and
stifling the team’s growth and trust development process. For trust
building to flourish, people on your team have to be able to take risks
and fail, learn to depend on other people, and develop their ability and
reputation for being dependable themselves.

shoot for early small successes
The way people are perceived early in their relationship will affect
all future perceptions. If the very first thing I see you do is steal from
me, I’ll view every other thing you do in light of the fact that I think
you are a thief. If the very first thing I see you do is miss a deadline,
then I’m likely to consider you to be the kind of person who misses
deadlines, even if you have made every single deadline since then.
So, it’s important to give your workforce, individually and collectively,
opportunities to demonstrate trustworthiness that are likely to be suc-
cessful from the very start.

deal with Conflict Immediately
In a mobile environment, it’s easy for conflict to escalate rapidly.
When trust is low, simple e-mails may be interpreted as being threats.
Offline communications may be perceived as giving preferential treat-
ment. Assignments may be viewed as giving power to some and tak-