Page 98 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

trust or Bust � 77

Let people know what you are doing and why and that the trust you are
extending is not a blind trust that is indiscriminate, but it is also not a
distrust because of the fact they aren’t present and proximate. Rather,
you will extend a very explicit, smart trust based upon these expectations
and this kind of accountability. You then model it. You lead out first. This
may take, initially, a little more communication. You still are able to
communicate even if you aren’t present in person. You can communicate
by telephone, online, e-mail, and so forth. Sometimes in these settings,
especially early on, we may need to communicate more than we will later,
as we are trying to show our performance and connect with people. You
just want to make sure that early on you feel like you are on the same page.

smart trust
Stephen distinguishes between what he calls blind trust, distrust,
and smart trust. Someone who trusts blindly will “get burned,” he
says. “That’s being gullible.” The person who distrusts everyone is
equally poor. Those people view life through a lens of suspicion and
only really trust themselves. It is just too risky to trust other people, they
think. There is a cost to the team, a culture, a company, and relation-
ships from not extending trust. Stephen told us about a retail store
whose manager was so worried about shrinkage on his racks that he
tied down the sunglasses so no one could steal them. The results, of
course, were disastrous, because no one could try them on. There is a
risk in trusting, but there is also a risk in not trusting.
The third alternative is what he calls “smart trust,” and it is particu-
larly needed in a mobile workforce. Smart trust takes into account the
risks involved, the credibility of the people involved, and the situation.
It is built by setting clear expectations and accountability for those
expectations, being transparent, extending trust, receiving trust, and
reciprocating that trust. “It becomes a virtuous upward cycle of trust
and confidence creating more trust and confidence,” Stephen said.
It’s not just giving indiscriminate blind trust to virtual work-
ers. Nor is it distrusting them, being suspicious of their motives and