Does Your Manager Trust You?

At my job, I have the title of "Director" and I have responsibility for the team that builds an internal application that is important to the sales team of the company I work for.  I also manage -- either directly or indirectly -- a team of around 40 software developers, none of which are in the same city as I am.  There are not enough hours in the week for me to spend time on everything that I am responsible for.  As such, I must delegate some of those responsibilities and TRUST that my team will complete the work without my direct involvement.

Gaining the trust of your leader is an important component of career advancement.  If your manager trusts you, it leads to more responsibility and eventually to the promotion you desire.  But trust isn't something that's gained instantaneously, it's built over time.

The first key to gaining your managers trust is to understand the decisions that they make and why.  When your manager delegates tasks to you, they are trusting that you are going to complete the task successfully.  They are also trusting that you are going to make the same decisions that your manager would when facing a similar situation.  The more closely your decisions match your leader's, the more they will trust you with future decisions.

The next key is knowing how and when to escalate.  There will be times when you don't know what decision your manager would make or if you feel strongly that a different decision should be made.  In those instances, you'll likely need to escalate to your manager.  This is another opportunity to gain trust with your manager.  When you escalate appropriately to your manager, it's a chance for you to show them that you understand what things are important to the overall goals of the team.  It also gives you an opportunity to show your manager you can be an independent thinker.  Conversely, if you escalate every little decision or do not have a strong case for making a different decision, your manager may lose trust in you.

Another way to build trust with your manager is in how you communicate.  As I mentioned at the beginning of the episode, I have a lot of responsibilities and don't often have time to deal with all of them.  When someone on my team needs my input, it's important for them to be clear and concise about their needs.  If it takes a lot of time for me to understand the request or if it's too deep in the weeds, I can feel like I'm wasting my time or that I've delegated the task to the wrong person.  Present a summary of the situation and what decision is required.  If I need details, I can ask for them, but if I trust that you have accurately portrayed the situation, I often won't need them.

Saying that you'll do something and then following through with that statement goes a long way towards building trust.  This allows me to delegate a task and shift my focus to other issues because I know that it will be handled.  This also shows consistency and honesty -- two factors that enhance the level of trust that your leader has in you.

Speaking of honesty, the final key to building the trust of your manager is owning your mistakes and working to correct them.  There will be times when you make the wrong decision or miss a key deliverable.  It happens, no one is perfect, but it's how you react to those mistakes that matters.  There may be an initial impact to the level of trust you manager has, but over time, the integrity you've shown can result in a stronger level of trust.

If you find yourself struggling to gain trust, take a look across your team and try to figure out which team members your manager trusts most and then emulate them.  Your peers often have more time to help you understand your manager's decision making processes and priorities.  Watch which issues they escalate and how they present them.  If you continue to do these key things, over time, you'll become more trusted.  With trust, comes additional responsibility and often, more autonomy.

What other topics would you like me to cover?  Head over to the Managing A Career feedback page and let me know what career development questions you have.  I will discuss them in an upcoming episode.