Managing director knowledge: Change needs trust

What is the basis for willingness to change?

When we support medium-sized companies with such changes, managing directors often express the wish: "Change should become the most natural thing in the world in our company." Many managers are often unaware of what this means.

Trust as the basis for willingness to change

For us humans to change, we have to leave our comfort zone. In order to do that, we need emotional security. We get this security when we trust:

• the people who initiate and lead the change
• the benefits of change
• the change process
• the environment that is shaping the change process with us
• ourselves that we will master the new requirements

Where must trust prevail as a minimum for changes to have a chance of success?

For change to have a chance of success, at least three of the five aspects mentioned must be present:

1. Trust in the managementEmployees must be able to trust that their managers are making the right decisions and that the change makes sense.
2. Trust in the processThe change process must be transparent and comprehensible so that employees can get involved.
3. Confidence in your own roleEmployees must have the feeling that their own skills and contributions are valued and needed both in the process and in the "new company".

How can managing directors have a positive influence on building trust in change?

Building trust in change projects is a process. As a managing director, you can do the following to achieve this:

• Exemplify trust: Building trust within the management team and radiating this trusting behaviour to the outside world
• Communicate clearly: Communicate the change process transparently and comprehensibly
• Involve employees: Involve employees at all levels in shaping the new
• offer qualification: To ensure that the new requirements associated with the change can be mastered, you should offer appropriate training programmes from the outset.
• Celebrate successes: Trust in the process is strengthened when what has been achieved is visible. Employees get the message: "We are on the right track."

What are concrete measures towards more trust?

Analyse your own trust and uncover areas for action

The greater your own trust in various key elements, the greater your environment's trust in you. I therefore recommend that you analyse your trust in three areas and identify areas for action.

• Their trust in their management team: "Are we pulling in the same direction? Do we stand up for each other? Do we act with integrity?",
• Your confidence in the organisation: "Do I have the confidence that we as an organisation can manage this change at this time?" and
• Your self-confidence: "Can I convincingly fulfil this leadership task that is currently required of me? Am I ready to embrace and exemplify the innovations?".

Building trust within the management team

If you do not have unreserved trust in your management team, it is crucial that you build this up. After all, a lack of trust within the management team has a negative impact on the success of change processes. Because:

• Decision-making processes take a long time or fail.
• A solution often consists only of the lowest common denominator, thus hindering progress and diminishing the success of change.
• It is not spoken with one voice.
• The risk that other members of the organisation will try to play the leadership team off against each other increases.
• Irritations that arise become a conflict due to a lack of clarification.
• Conflicts that arise in the course of change are usually not resolved, which leads to growing mistrust.
• Personal concerns dominate thoughts and actions - a solution that makes sense for the company is secondary.
• The whole process takes longer and therefore costs more money.
• The risk of top performers dropping out during the process increases.

Therefore, dear managers, you should ideally work on improving your relationship of trust with each other and with your direct management team with the help of an experienced consultant before the official kick-off of the change project.

Team development for management teams

Communicate changes clearly and convincingly

In our article "Communication in change processes", we described in detail what and how you should communicate the upcoming changes.

Communication in change processes

Strengthening the trust of employees and managers

You can strengthen the confidence of your employees and managers in themselves and their roles as follows:

• Sincere appreciation
• Room for further development
• Active involvement in shaping change through strength-related tasks and roles
• Dealing constructively with errors
• Targeted further training in the ongoing change process

Recognising progress in the change process

As change processes usually extend over several years, it is important that you don't just celebrate success at the end. Establish regular communication about what has been achieved. Sincerely appreciate what has already been achieved and thank those who have contributed to it. It is important that the progress you talk about has actually been achieved.

How do managing directors recognise that there is more trust?

You can tell that employees and managers trust you and the planned changes more by these behaviours, among others:

• Discussions about the what and why of change are becoming more lively,
• Criticism of the change project or individual process components is expressed openly,
• The willingness to take risks with new approaches is increasing,
• Mistakes are openly admitted,
• Decisions that are necessary in the process are made faster and more independently.