Introduction
The challenges faced by the industry across the globe have reaffirmed the growing impact of the VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world. We have had to swiftly unlearn, relearn, and learn new abilities to be relevant as we have attempted to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. Our teams have looked up to us as leaders for direction. We have had to adapt and display resolve and resilience in trying times in a world where change is happening at the pace of lightning.
Why Is Building Trust in The VUCA World Important?
Many individuals believe that in the corporate environment, volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity will only increase. You should be aware of the changes that this type of environment can bring about if you want to manage teams in the VUCA age.
VUCA requires more AGILITY from leaders, including change agility, emotional agility, and learning agility. According to studies, resistance from current executives still permeates and has an impact on whether choices are carried out and implemented with the necessary speed and veracity to drive the organization into the future in a sustainable fashion.
Leaders must also have greater RESILIENCE in the face of VUCA. They must be able to recover from setbacks, accept that a decision was flawed and that a new one needs to be made, and have the guts to declare, “I don’t know,” adding that they will find a collaborator and conduct further research.
When we combine agility and resilience, we need a healthy dose of trust from our teams to drive performance and results.
Our leaders need to understand and cultivate these skills since they are people-centred rather than task or intellectually (IQ) or emotionally (EQ) oriented.
You need to re-evaluate how you and your company runs if this environment has an impact on your industry or organization.
10 ways for leaders to build trust in the VUCA world
Some of the ways through which a leader can build trust in the VUCA world are as follows:
- Clearly define the organization’s fundamental values
In times of change, it is crucial to define the organization’s fundamental value proposition and how you and your team contribute to it daily. Your team will have a better understanding of the big picture by establishing and articulating a unified mission and vision. This common goal and vision serve as a pillar of consistency and direction in a world where everything is continuously changing.
2. Be flexible
Flexibility and adaptability are desirable qualities in a leader during times of upheaval and uncertainty. Leadership in a VUCA environment necessitates a willingness to change from rigorous adherence to one’s annual plan. Flexibility, adaptability, and agility are fundamental to VUCA leadership when new information is gathered, decisions are taken, and possibilities are presented.
3. Be action-oriented
Having the drive for action is critical for VUCA leadership. Being action-oriented is the capacity to make choices when faced with limited knowledge, the ability to comprehend the intricacy and interconnectedness of the choices being made, and the trust to rely on one’s experiences because this decision has never been taken before. Leaders must acknowledge that they live in a flawed environment and choose the best course of action for their project, team, and organization.
4. Make space for innovation and diversity
Innovative thinking and diverse ideas, which call for participation from all levels and departments within the business, are required when leading through unprecedented times to find fresh solutions. As there are no best practices for navigating through VUCA, leaders must encourage employee cooperation because everyone must come up with creative solutions and quickly adapt to the reality that is changing.
5. Let Employees Become Leaders
It’s critical for business leaders to allow their staff members to always take on leadership roles, not just during critical junctures or turning points. It must become part of the corporate culture of the organization. There is always a mystical feeling of distance between managers and workers. Everyone in the organization gains confidence that they can lead if leaders go over such limitations and demonstrate that they realize they will eventually be replaced. It’s also a good strategy for the leadership since they can instil a new sense of accountability in the workforce and allow them to become personally committed to the company’s success, which is ultimately what everyone should aim for whether they are a leader or not.
6. Communicate with emotional intelligence.
Because it weaves together solid interpersonal connections, emotional intelligence (EI) is one of the most important factors in establishing trust. EI is divided into four quadrants: relationship management, self-management, social awareness, and self-awareness. The ability to establish trusting relationships with team members, clients, and consumers is compromised when a leader is lacking in one or more of these areas. A person with low EI, for instance, can act selfishly, get quickly irritated, or lack empathy. None of these traits encourage the development of trust because they all give the impression that the person is unpredictable and unreliable.
7. Show appreciation and gratitude
When leaders value and support their teams, trust is developed. However, research indicates that there is often a lack of appreciation at work. For instance, a Psychometrics study reveals that more than half of workers desire greater recognition from their managers at work. Team members start disengaging, disassociating, and separating from their leaders and the goal that everyone is working for when they feel taken for granted. The greatest method for a leader to deal with this is to express how much each team member is appreciated.
8. Be decisive and act with confidence and belief
The guiding vision that leads the company’s initiatives must be shared by leaders. Uncertainty and instability are the results of a CEO who is continually second-guessing their decisions. Because trust requires predictability, none of these circumstances can serve as a foundation for its development. Team members start to feel like they are lost in the woods at night, waiting for an ambush, when a leader seems uncertain. You can feel the immobility. It causes stress, worry, and fear—three major contributors to a toxic workplace.
Your team needs to be convinced that you have a strategy in place to achieve your goals and that you feel you can do it. Nobody else will share your vision if you don’t. Engagement, output, and employee retention are impacted by this. Inspiration and motivation are the two main ingredients in igniting interest in getting your team members excited about your vision.
9. Be A Role Model
Trust takes time to develop. You cannot acquire it in a week, and particularly not during a period of stress. A key moment in your business must be anticipated well in advance, and the best way to win over staff is to integrate it into the corporate culture. Show your team members how you want to be treated and act in challenging circumstances so they can follow your lead. Delegate significant duties to your team and give them the authority to make choices without consulting you, for instance, if you want to build trust. At the same time, always be straightforward and honest. If something goes wrong, search for the remedy first rather than the offending party.
10. Engage them in team-building activities
Team building exercises are essential among the several methods suggested for improving trust in leadership. When workers feel their needs are not being met, they lose faith in their leaders. Leaders can often become so focused on their daily tasks and deadlines that they neglect to recognize and engage their employees. Similar situations occur regularly at work as a result of misplaced priorities.
But small-scale team-building exercises can have a tremendous impact on effective leadership. You can demonstrate to staff members how worthy, significant, and cherished their efforts are simply by modelling the proper team-building techniques.
Remote team building activities to build trust
Some of the virtual team-building activities to build trust amongst leaders and employees are:
- Virtual Lunch or Coffee Dates
Before businesses shifted to remote work, lunch and coffee dates were a widespread practice. They gave individuals a chance to socialize and take a break from work in addition to making it possible for them to eat together. Even though face-to-face interactions are sometimes not possible due to remote work, socializing is still a crucial activity that shouldn’t be ignored.
By blocking the calendar and designating a set time each day to have lunch through Zoom or another similar technology, teams can resurrect their daily lunch habit.
- Socialize in the Group Chat
Employees in physical workplaces sometimes have the chance to talk and mingle with one another during lunch, at the water cooler, or in the hallway. The unscheduled social time promotes employee interaction and provides a break from work.
While working remotely allows for tremendous freedom, it also eliminates these accidental encounters for a casual conversation about life outside of work. Many businesses have been attempting to use collaboration tools like Slack and Zoom to encourage more informal interactions and connections between their staff members.
Slack has several bots, such as Donut, and RandomCoffees, that can facilitate communication and interaction between two unrelated employees.
Teams can also decide to set aside a specific time window daily or weekly.
- Home Workspace Tours
Employees no longer have the opportunity to display their individuality through their office decor as home and work settings have become more integrated with remote work. In actual offices, workers frequently adorn their work areas with pictures of their families, souvenirs from previous trips, holidays, etc.
A team can organize a Zoom group meeting for each employee to give a tour of their new home workplace as part of a home workspace tour.
- Show-and-Tell
Allow everyone to share something they’re proud of, glad about, or enjoying lately at the start of your next team meeting. These could be concrete items they can display, like the sweater they’re knitting or their new keyboard, or intangible accomplishments they can share with the team like running their first 5K, finishing their first marathon, or baking some amazing bread the previous weekend.
Way Forward
Building trust in the VUCA world requires time and, occasionally, trial and error for new leaders or even for seasoned ones. It’s possible that you won’t get it right straight away. Consider baby steps. Choose one initiative, and have your team try it out. Just remember to keep an eye on your progress once each project is over, and feel free to share your analysis with your team to really help them out!
Leaders must prioritize the team in a complex and dynamic environment while also being aware of how their choices may affect both their team members and other stakeholders.
As you engage in various team-building exercises and virtual team events, learn to be comfortable with accepting criticism. Be adaptable when implementing novel ideas, and you’ll be astonished by how creating trust can alter the game for you, your team, and the entire organization.