Trust Questions

To build trust, it is important to first instill trust in others. When asking questions about trust, use words like "honestly" and "transparency" to encourage open and trustworthy communication. Many times, employees give answers they think their leaders want to hear, which can harm trust. Instead, ask people how they prefer to be approached and communicate authentically. This may not always result in agreement, but it will help build trust. When coaching to trust, first again, we have to instill trust. Number two, when you're asking questions of someone as it relates to trust, and you feel like somebody kind of hedges or they might give you an answer they think you want to hear, there's a great technique where you put in the desired behavior. This is not just an opposite insertion question. It's a word statement. So John, honestly, what's the thing that's causing you the most struggles as it relates to fitting into the team? Honestly. And I stress that word. Second word. You know, Joe, from 100% transparency, share with me, you get the idea, use words that facilitate trust. Honestly. Third word, transparency. When we ask questions, we want to instill their permission to be trustworthy. Look, we may not want to admit this as leaders, but often employees will give us answers they think we want to hear. See, we have so many rhetorical conversations that come at the expense of trust. Let me give you an example. Walk down the hall. Hi, Joanne, how are you? Good. And don't really have fruitful conversations. Then when we have discord and trust is required, it's tough because we haven't really built it. So one of the things that you can do is start to ask people questions. What's the best way for me to be authentic and honest with you, yet also sympathetic and empathetic? What's the best way to approach it? When you ask people the best way to approach them, they accept you more. It doesn't mean they're going to always love what you say. And those are some great questions that will get you off the dime.