Trust

My Friday Thought: Trust isn't blind faith and can be data driven. It is, however, vital to allow people to find their way and permit ways of working different to your own. Micro-management or full control and trust do not go hand in hand.

Within engineering can be seen through delivery of outcomes and achieving the desired results - it is driven by data. However, when a new group comes together, or new stakeholders/programmes arrive with different pressures it can be hard for the consistency of the past to present trust on day one.

If your the stakeholder/new programme, it is your job to provide space for a team to deliver and demonstrate they can be trusted. You need to permit them to fail, adapt and modify what you believe to be the 'right' way.

Within established teams, leaders need to establish two way trust. They need to empower their engineers to make decisions, questions their decisions when they see a better way and protect them from mistrust at different levels. This means stepping back from full control and all decision making and even harder stepping back from having to be involved in every conversation - trust your team to come to you with the big discussions and empower them to deliver the smaller things knowing they have your support.

The two way element comes from them trusting you when sometimes their preferred (and maybe better route) can't be done right then. They should know that you will have advocated for them and their technical viewpoints. The delivers you do together should be fully transparent and failures be openly discussed.

This type of trust not only supports a psychological safe environment, but a learning one to - where deliver not open happen, but also innovation and an environment people want to be in.