In today’s age of hybrid collaboration, skills shortages and increasing volatility, trust is now one of the most important elements for leaders to emphasize within their organizations. Leaders must develop a mutual level of trust with their employees to foster a company culture that supports personal and organizational growth.

Yet, why is trust so important, and how can leaders successfully lay the foundation for its development?

1. Why Is Trust Important?

The simple answer: Trust is the basis of every successful collaboration. Whether you’re in the office, in high-stakes sales talks or engaging in an everyday interaction, a level of trust must be present. A test of trust takes place before we tackle something together with others, before a product or service is purchased, or before one hires a new employee. Stephen M. Covey, the guru on trust for decades, has deemed trust the new currency for organizations. After all, if you can’t rely on anything, you get nothing done. In times of hybrid work, this is truer than ever.

Most people consider competencies in trust to be innate or learned early on. For example, children learn to distinguish between the familiar and the unfamiliar in their very first weeks and months because, without this instinct, small and helpless, they would hardly survive their childhood years. Nevertheless, it is true: You can learn to trust at any age. It’s not easy for everyone, but it’s worth it.

Leaders, in particular, must have a strong sense of trust, because their ability to trust largely determines both their team’s success and their own.

When it comes to trust, here are three rules to remember:

• Trust is the foundation of successful human interactions.
• Trust in yourself and others makes you and your environment more resilient.
• A culture of trust starts with the leader as a role model.

2. Trust: Whoever Gives It, Receives It

If you want to learn how to trust, which is the foundation for good people leadership, you paradoxically have to do one thing first: Give it away. The literal leap of faith is the initial spark for successful cooperation.

When it comes to trusting others, remember:

• Giving away trust means taking yourself and others seriously.
• Whoever gives away trust signals trustworthiness and lays the foundation for cooperation.
• Greater cooperation gradually minimizes the need for control and, after some time, ensures the eradication of resource-consuming micromanagement.

3. Trust Means Delegation

No one can know or master everything all at once. Managers who claim to be infallible risk finding themselves in an echo chamber that only makes failure exponentially worse.

See to it that the essential departments in your organization are run by people who have earned your trust. It is not always trained managers who do the best work, but those who are simply good at what they do and have a high level of social competence and the proper sense of corporate culture. You can test whether this is the case by handing over individual tasks first, then decreasing control with each success.

If you want to build this capability, make it clear that making mistakes is an option, and set at most a handful of well-defined rules that are essential to follow moving forward. Finally, encourage people to explore and continue learning.

As you continue to delegate, encourage curiosity and creativity, and reward employees who push you and the organization forward.

For effective delegation, remember:

• Those who delegate only half-heartedly either have an untrustworthy environment or a distorted image of themselves. Both lead to bad decisions.
• Do not ask for too much! Mistakes are omnipresent and are there for learning. Therefore, gradually trust more and control what comes back. Set few but clear rules and define consequences for not following them.
• Successful delegation works according to the “Who does what, how, with what, when and by when?” principle.

Building trust isn’t easy, but by following the best practices outlined above, you’ll be on your way toward fostering a more collaborative and trusting team environment.