If you’re an entrepreneur, odds are high you want to know how to help your company grow. I’ve built several businesses, so I have hard-earned perspectives on the subject. But I don’t want to tell you about cash flow or customer acquisition or any of the other business-y crap we hear about all the time. I want to talk about what’s actually at the heart of business growth: trust.
This is so far off of what anybody expects me to say, and I can see why. It probably sounds touchy-feely or vulnerable but I’m ok with that. Trust in business is essential for growth, but it’s ridiculously overlooked and under-prioritized. It sounds vague, so we don’t take the time to define it. It sounds subjective, so we don’t bring it up in meetings for fear of others’ perceptions being different.
But, you must make trust part of your world, both professionally and personally, in order to thrive. Here’s what I mean.
Trust at home = focus at work.
If I met someone who could truly compartmentalize their life, I’d be in awe of them. Most of us (men especially) think we can segment our lives, but it’s all a heap of B.S. What happens at home impacts what happens at the office, no matter who you are.
If I have an argument at home and it’s still unresolved when I head into work, I’m unintentionally irritable with my team and find myself zoning out during important meetings. When one of my kids is struggling with a peer situation, I find myself obsessively checking my phone to see if I got a call from the school. Even if I try to mask it, my home life seeps into my work life and vice versa.
What about when there’s a foundation of trust in the home? Sure, it won’t entirely solve the scenarios I just mentioned, but it does play a huge part in improving them. Since my wife and I have a relationship built on trust, I know that one argument is not going to make or break us. I don’t have to stew over whatever we argued about all day at work, because I trust we’ll be able to talk through it at night when I get home. And if I trust my wife in her role as mother of our children (I absolutely do), then I can feel confident she’ll be able to take care of my daughter’s needs if something comes up when I can’t check on the phone or I’m busy at work or traveling.
This kind of trust frees up my mind, heart, and energy so I can devote it to the work in front of me. Whether you’re married, single, have eight kids or zero, the point is the same. You need to have trust with the important people in your life, so you can focus on your business – and feel good about it.
A culture of vulnerability is a culture of strength.
No one actually wants to be vulnerable. Brene Brown sums it up pretty well by saying “Vulnerability is the last thing I want you to see in me, but the first thing I look for in you.” It’s hard to give a candid critique of someone you admire; harder still to admit to your employees that you screwed up a big project. But if you don’t force yourself as the leader to own your vulnerability, then you can’t expect your team to feel comfortable doing so either. And when teams are able to be vulnerable together, they’re strengthened.
Before our last annual planning meeting my team and I was given the homework of reading “Five Dysfunctions of a Team” by Patrick Lencioni (stellar book, if you haven’t read it). It really reinforced the concept that we have to trust each other completely and give honest, open feedback to elevate the company. What I’ve found is that delivering this kind of feedback, especially when it’s negative, can be the worst shade of vulnerability.
If you trust that you and your team members have each other’s – and the business’ – best interests at heart, you can deliver and receive honest feedback in the constructive way it’s intended.
Trust before growth.
So many entrepreneurs tell me they want to grow their companies and achieve wild success – but in the next breath, they tell me how they can’t delegate because no one else can do what they do. First, I get this as I was that way with many of my initial businesses. When your business is your baby, you want to stay in control. Even the idea of handing over the reins to someone else can make you have night sweats.
But, you can’t grow if you can’t delegate. It’s simple math. You’re one person, and the growth of the company means the growth of roles. It’s literally impossible for you to maintain control of everything. So you either stay stagnant and small, or you learn to trust and allow yourself to grow.
I realized a while back that most people who “can’t delegate” actually just don’t trust the people on their teams. If you find yourself in this situation, ask why trust isn’t there. Is it an issue on your end, or are there team members who have broken your trust in the past? Figure out why you’re struggling with trust, so you can try to take steps to fix it.
I love that I can travel now, and my team can pretty much handle everything at the office in my absence. Can you imagine the kind of freedom that comes with that level of trust? It’s immense – and super important to me. After all, why toil away building a business if you’re always going to be chained to the day to day operations? That sounds more like a prison than success to me.
If you want freedom and to grow your company, you need to trust your family at home and trust your employees at work. It’s not just a good thing to do; it’s absolutely essential to your business’ growth and your overall happiness. I’d love to hear if you’ve been able to lay foundations of trust at home and at work. If not, what’s holding you back? Contact me here!
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