I’m hearing some rumblings these days that imply trust is teetering and that worries me. Things like…”How can I manage people when they’re working from home”? “If I don’t see them working, how do I know they really are?”

Did you know there’s software now that tracks an employee’s activity when they’re working remotely? Sign in and sign out times, screen time, even what they’re looking at throughout the day.  That sounds eerily similar to Big Brother is Watching You – remember that? That was “1984” published more than seven decades ago. Where’s the trust? Have we not evolved since then? Or, as George Orwell predicted, have we evolved just as expected? Has the pandemic crisis thrown us into the dark ages when it comes to management and the workplace? Or has it thrust us forward to our tragic destiny? 

Covid-19 has impacted our emotional relationships with employees, brands, institutions and even our community. Some people are responding to that impact by command and control, others by compassion and trust.  Still, it seems more and more companies are replacing the value of individual talents and teamwork with counting steps, more rules (aka “standards”) as we enter into this new era. Are we going back to the future with command & control or forward with trust & verify? Trust is not a matter of technical wizardry or monitoring systems. Trust is a matter of character.

Why is this happening? I think it’s mostly related to our need to feel in control of something. When our lives seem to spiral out of control, fear erupts like a broken sprinkler head and our subconscious instinct is fight or flight to control whatever we can. Often how we respond tests our character. In the case of managers and the workplace, it seems some are turning to controlling the people.  Yet, for decades, YES DECADES, research has clearly proven that employees want to be a part of creating the solutions that drive organizations forward. They want to be valued, trusted and recognized for their input. They have been thriving in environments that allow them to innovate and explore better ways of doing things with leaders who encourage mistakes and then provide mentoring to learn from them.

Since the 1960’s we seemingly made great progress in managing people for individual and organizational success. Or did we? What’s driving this? Fear = The creator of the command and control ideology. It smolders under the psyche of some managers awaiting the “OMG what could go wrong and will I be to blame” flareup. It creates mistrust, paranoia, impatience and really big blind spots. What I think we all need to realize is that to allow ourselves to be controlled by fear is to be selfish and ignorant. Selfish, because maybe we don’t want to share in other’s success, hear new perspectives or, worse, be outshined by a direct report.  Ignorant because there’s plenty of science to demonstrate what great managers do and engaged employees need. So, the conclusion must be we are selfish and ignorant if we’re driven by fear and succumb to command and control.

OK, before I lose you... let’s set that conclusion aside for a moment. Let’s remember - this is the era of the individual. It is these very same individuals who will make or break organizations.
Ask yourself, how clear are your outcomes? Do you know what’s expected of you and how to achieve it? How do you want to be managed? Sometimes managers confuse activity or things easy to count for real outcomes. Busy work trumps true performance.  Often, employee and manager have never defined measurable desired outcomes. Really, I can’t believe we’re still talking about this.

If I said to you, I need you to make a product that does “a, b and c” – how might you respond?
You would likely say something like…Great! I’ll need these tools and equipment to get that job done. So, I would give you those tools, the equipment you requested and together we would set a deadline for the job to be done. We would probably check in weekly to see how it’s going, if you need any help or have questions. Then, upon reaching the deadline, you’d deliver or not. Performance based on outcomes. It really works.
 
Now, what if I made you start your day at 8am and I knew you were doing that because I have software that tells me what time you log in to the computer, I’ve provided to you. I expect you to stay logged in all day, maybe log out for a lunch break, and get right back on until 5pm. I’d track your keystrokes, your phone calls, your IM’s, your social media time. I’d expect you to not be diverted by any distractions – family, illness, unexpected emergencies, whatever it might be, I gave you a job and I’m going to make sure every day that you are working on doing that job. How would that make you feel? Would you trust that I had confidence in your ability? Would you feel like I supported your talent and creativity in meeting the goal we’ve set for the end of the month? Would you feel watched, controlled, stifled, trusted? Maybe you feel that way now, in the role you’re in. Maybe your manager is afraid of trusting you because if you don’t come through it hurts her reputation, it hurts revenue, it hurts the company. But, what if instead, I simply said – here’s the target (product), here’s the timeline (one month), here’s the tools and equipment you told me you needed. Let me know how I can help.  How would you feel then? Would you feel supported, trusted, confident that leadership believes in your talent and commitment? Free to do what you do best every day?

We don’t need tracking software and a big brother mentality. We need trust, good will, mutual respect and support. If you’re a manager and you’re reading this – here are some things I suggest you consider:

    What matters? Screen Time or Results?
    Am I avoiding the opportunity to build trust?
    Am I doing the necessary work of defining outcomes and measuring progress?
Am I really going to rely on technology to determine who’s “really working”?
If my direct reports spend all day at the beach but still deliver the product and all other     expectations on time and successfully, does it really matter where they were?
   
In our studies of employee needs/drivers in the Covid era we’ve found:
•    People embrace and are motivated by high expectations when strong manager & team support is present
•    Talents enabled (know desired outcomes + manager knows me + my talents and abilities are fully utilized) = individual engagement above the 80th percentile

I know it can be tempting to try to control something right now.  I encourage you to focus that need for control on developing new strategies and strengthening relationships your organization will likely need to survive what is sure to be a tumultuous next several months. Turn your energy to building trust. In collaboration with your teams, set clear and measurable goals and expectations. Avoid the trap of wanting to control something.

Encourage your teams, clearly set expectations, mutually agree on objectives and determine how and when results will be measured...then get out of the way.
Ernest Hemingway wrote...”the best way to find out if you can trust someone, is to trust them.” It really is as simple as that.


Curt Coffman is the Co-Founder of The Coffman Organization. A trained psychologist, Curt gets people. Prior to founding The Coffman Organization, Curt spent 22 years at The Gallup Organization as the Global Practice Leader for employee and customer engagement consulting. He is a New York Times Bestselling Author and Executive Fellow at The Daniels School of Business at the University of Denver.