About three years back, I went to Germany to attend CeBIT. Magnet was doing very well and we were looking at new markets. There was a strong team in place and we hoped to find some partners in Germany who would subcontract work to us.
The CeBIT experience was good, but the IT industry had not yet recovered from the 9/11 shock. Companies informed that they themselves were looking for work in Germany and there were enough low cost and efficient resources available from eastern Germany and even other nearby countries. Bottomline – no business benefit from the tour.
There was some more bad news in the pipeline. When I returned, the IT scene in India was improving, and within three months, almost all the top brass of the organization left for better prospects. Many others followed. We were down to about 35 people from a head count of more than 50 in just three months.
This was a major shock for me. All the people I trusted, on whose promise of support, we took risks, were gone now. Only those remained who were closest friends.
I decided not to trust employees.
A lot of incidents happened in the next years which only strengthened the belief.
Then I did Landmark Forum this June.
The forum altered my views of the situation. I realized that I missed a lot of good qualities of the employees because the trust was not there. My behavior with the team had changed and that limited the growth. I also have to accept that in the IT industry, you can not expect people to stay with you forever.
A lot of things have changed after this realization. I have grown closer to people; I now take active interest in employees’ growth; and my outlook too has changed. The results have been fabulous. People feel much better now, the company performance has improved (of course, a lot of other factors contributed too), and people simply enjoy working in Magnet a lot more.
I am not stuck with the question about trusting employees. Now, I work on how I can inspire trust in my people.
A couple of thoughts regarding trust and staff retetention.
“Staff” are full human beings in their own right, with their own dreams, their own needs, their own concerns. If you genuinely care for those dreams and needs, of course they will want to stay, and give their best.
And if your organisation is not the right place for a particular person to grow and develop, and fulfil what”s important to them, then it’s right and proper for that person to leave.
You’ve moved from seeing the world only through your own wants to honouring and respecting others, and that is very powerful.