Three mistakes that erode trust during funding cuts

How can I build trust despite funding cuts?

A question that many NGO leaders are asking themselves these days. Funding cuts are not new to the NGO sector.  However recent decisions by the US Government as well as other trends have impacted budgets sector wide and leaders are now grappling with how to keep up team morale and trust.

In order to answer this question, I would like to first pose another one: “What should we NOT do if we want to build trust during funding cuts?”

Trust is essential as a leader.  Countless studies, such as this one by Harvard Business Review, which interviewed people at high trust companies report:

• 74% less stress
• 106% more energy at work
• 50% higher productivity
• 13% fewer sick days
• 76% more engagement
• 29% more satisfaction with their lives
• 40% less burnout

The direct relation seems clear then;  that trust can in fact help morale during times of crisis— including during funding cuts like many of us are experiencing now.

To discover what can help build trust, let’s first look at three common mistakes leaders make which actually erode it:

•  Withholding information from your teams in order to “protect” them In working with hundreds of NGO leaders globally, I have found leaders sometimes feel they are protecting their team by not sharing information with them.  For example, if they hear something they think is “bad news” they will not share it in an effort to protect their team, even if upper management would allow them to share it.This type of behavior erodes trust because leaders are essentially treating your team as children who cannot handle “bad news” rather than as peers who are adults. Part of trust building is trusting that others are capable of navigating bad news, and that they have the capacity to handle it.  Intentionally deciding to not share permissible information is a sign that we don’t trust our team’s ability to react well to that information.A few years ago, I remember having an NGO supervisor who during a difficult time shared information with us as much as they could. I observed how much respect this one action helped build with the team. We felt like they were doing as much as they could for us. Even during difficult times this helped boost morale and trust among the team members.

• Excluding your team in decision making As Daniel Pink demonstrates in this study autonomy, the freedom to own your work, is a big part of human motivation. Part of this is feeling in control of your part of the overall team effort. What would you prefer?  To be told what is going to happen to you, or to be involved in how it will happen?The more we can include our teams in decision making, the more they will feel things are happening with them and not to them.

This includes difficult decisions with budget cuts.  Involving your team in such decisions can increase organizational credibility and trust as demonstrated in this article.

Another benefit of allowing teams to be involved in decision making is they may come up with ideas leaders would not think of themselves.

This is something I observed when teaching NGO leaders how to use coaching skills. Many leaders are in the habit of telling their teams what to do rather than asking them for solutions.  It is always amusing to see how delighted leaders are when they start involving their teams more in decisions and how motivating it is for their team members, especially during difficult times.

• Restricting opportunities to listen to your team  I have been part of teams where senior leaders hesitate to allow teams to share their feelings or thoughts about difficult circumstances for fear it will get out of control.  As if this could lead to some kind of riot or unionization.I remember when there was an unpopular policy put in place by my former NGO. Although the other senior leaders were skeptical, I decided to have a staff meeting with all  50 on our team, and allow everyone to just talk about it.  And yes, there were some heated discussions and thoughts shared,but there was also an understanding that there is not much we could do to change the policy itself, and that we needed to find a way to work with it — together.  Allowing staff to feel heard and trusting that they can share without having a total meltdown demonstrated trust, and I witnessed a visible difference in morale afterwards.When we don’t intentionally create space for people to share their frustrations, they will vent them in other ways, including gossip and other toxic behaviors, that can lead to even lower morale.

How to build trust during funding cuts

So what can we do to build trust during funding cuts?

The bottom line here is that we must  go first as leaders—we must begin by trusting our teams.

This is what trusting our team looks like in practice:

• Sharing information about the situation as much as you can and, when you cannot, simply reassure them you will update them as soon as you are able to involve your team as much as possible in decisions that impact them, so they feel they have some control over their own future and the challenges ahead.
• Allowing some time, maybe during a team meeting, for them to share their thoughts and feelings openly. It does not mean you as a leader have to solve all their problems or answer all their questions, but it will make your team feel heard and that you care about them.