When I was entering the corporate workplace I was a part time employee and a full time college student. Office politics was new to me. Having moved many times in the years I was growing up, I had learned that watching the people around me, learning the rules of their system, and finding one person who seemed trustworthy enough who could explain what I didn’t understand about this particular system was a wise move.
An older gentleman with a lot of wisdom and an affable manner agreed to be my mentor in my endeavor to learn the rules of system. (I smile as I write this, for all I know, he could have been in his late thirties. When I was in my late teens, late 30’s seemed really old).
He would show up at my desk giving me pearls of wisdom any time the rumor mill would begin to get started. We never met one-on-one with me asking questions and him giving lengthy explanations. What I learned from him was one pearl at time.
One particular day, some important paperwork was missing. Paperwork came into the office through my desk. It was my job to log the paperwork in, to check the names on the route sheet where the paperwork needed to go to make it’s rounds around the department, then send it on its way. Normally everything went like clockwork but one day, something went wrong and the office hub-bub began.
The first thing that happened was for the Department Head and the Next in Line to come check the logs. The paperwork had been logged in and the carbon copy of the routing sheet was present. Temporarily at least, I was in the clear. As the Department Head and the Next in Line moved away from my desk, my Mentor showed up with one of his pearls. He simply said with a smile, “Watch your back, the first thing that people do after finding a problem is to begin to Lay The Blame.”
What I have learned over the years is that in the presence of poor leadership and in absence of trust, some people will do many things that will stall the solution to a problem. What happened that day told everyone in the department that there was an absence of trust. Lots of time and energy was wasted as everyone who could possibly have been involved in that mistake (whether they were part of the mistake or not) as well as the solution, began to withdraw, to conceal, and to hesitate to offer any information or help.
Getting teams to work together towards a solution means helping everyone feel that the environment is safe. Laying The Blame destroys trust. Once someone has been a part of a system where revealing information brings them fear, humiliation and shame, it will be difficult to begin to help that person to feel safe to become part of a new system where trust can be built.
Trust is one of the things that is a limited commodity in America’s workplace today. Are you in a place where you feel that you can trust the leadership? Are you in a place cognitively and emotionally where you engender trust to the people around you? Being trustworthy doesn’t mean that you are infallible. Being trustworthy means that you have a good idea about what you will do when a crisis arises, large or small, that creates an environment where people feel safe to become part of the solution.
Leah Henderson, President
Leah Henderson & Associates
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