It has been my experience that if you don’t earn trust, you don’t get it.
It has also been my experience that once you lose trust, you rarely regain it.
Why am I talking about this? I wanted to share that many times I have worked with individuals and companies that lost my trust in them. They lost it by not being transparent, and by not being honest.
It is easy to say that when a company isn’t honest with their employees there is a bigger reason that justifies it. There is never a reason to lie to someone else. I never liked to lie to anyone in the past, even when I was told to do it by work supervisors.
When I have been asked to lie by supervisors I lose trust in the company. When a company doesn’t acknowledge its mistakes, you lose trust in it. No one is perfect and no one expects perfection. The best we can do is learn from our mistakes. Both as employees and employers.
Being transparent with issues as we learn about them encourages trust. It helps people see that you are reaching out for ideas on how to handle unexpected surprises. It encourages teamwork because perhaps the person you share that with has an idea/solution. However at the very least, you have communication and that makes everything better.
If you are a company and you don’t share with your employees when there is a problem, don’t expect those employees to trust you.