For legal firms, trust is the bedrock on which our entitlement to call ourselves a profession is built. Whether it’s external stakeholders, our opponents, our clients or our staff, the absence of trust is fatal to success. A loss of trust is almost an existential threat to a career in the law. A lawyer seen as disingenuous, deceitful, or dishonest will be marginalised by their peers, overlooked by potential clients, and, if an employer, eschewed by top talent. In the corporate world, organisations spend millions of dollars in marketing each year to build trust in their brand because they know the integrity of the brand is critical to success. Volkswagen found out firsthand how damaging a loss of trust can be to both brand and revenue! But a lawyer found guilty of professional misconduct or publicly outed for dishonesty will likely suffer an even worse fate than the German carmaker.

I can remember in my early days as managing partner of a firm, I went to see David Maister speak about his views on trust in professional services firms when he did a roadshow not long after he had co-authored his work, The Trusted Adviser. It was pertinent over 20 years ago, just as it is now, that we can’t expect clients to want to share their deepest concerns with us unless they feel that we can be trusted. Maister emphasised the need to focus on your client’s interests and to care more about the long-term relationship with them than any transaction you undertake on their behalf. He said that trust grows rather than appears; that it is both rational and emotional, is personal, and presumes a two-way relationship. There is no greater truism than that trust takes years to build but can be destroyed in seconds.

The trust gap

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The 2024 PWC Trust survey seems to confirm what many of us had suspected – that consumer trust in organisations and brands is waning. Perhaps it’s a product of a cycle of controversies, data breaches, and the leveraging impact of social media? Or maybe it’s a consequence of oversaturation, high inflation, economic challenges, and a perceived loss of value? According to the data collated by PWC, there is a disconnect between the perception of trust by the corporates and the reality on the ground; 90 per cent of business executives think that their customers highly trust the organisation, whereas, in fact, only 30 per cent of customers do. And perhaps the most alarming aspect of the results is that the gap is widening; in 2022 and 2023, this perception gap sat at 57 points, and that has now widened to 60.

Having corporate executives who are overly optimistic about the trust in their brand is nothing new, but it seems that their inflated expectations also extend to their relationships with staff, as the 2024 survey results show a chasm developing between their perception and actuality. According to the study, 86 per cent of business executives believe that trust by employees is high, but only 67 per cent of employees say that they highly trust their employer. The 18-point gap is a widening one. Is it just a consequence of corporate belt-tightening? Or are we seeing a systemic failure of leadership? One thing is for sure – only hard work and strong leadership can amend the trend.

Trust in leadership

When it comes to leadership, trust is the oxygen that enables teams to form, storm, norm and perform. Without it, high performance will remain elusive as a lack of collaboration, inspiration and innovation creates barriers to efficiencies and output. Low-trust environments create silos, encourage politicking, and leave every man and woman fighting for themselves in a dog-eat-dog culture. Conversely, decades of studies by analytics and advisory company Gallup have shown that organisations with high engagement consistently drive higher productivity and profitability. Their research suggests that only about 23 per cent of employees have trust in the leadership of the organisation that they work for. The Gallup work shows that workers who say they strongly trust their leaders are four times more likely to be engaged and 58 per cent less likely to be on the lookout for a new job.

Cynically viewed muffin baskets to boost staff morale won’t build trust. A 2017 article published in the Harvard Business Review, “The Neuroscience of Trust” by neuroscientist Paul Zak, suggested that organisations that use perks and incentives to attempt to engage staff don’t achieve higher staff satisfaction or better retention rates. He said:

“In my research, I’ve found that building a culture of trust is what makes a meaningful difference. Employees in high-trust organisations are more productive, have more energy at work, collaborate better with their colleagues, and stay with their employers longer than people working at low-trust companies. They also suffer less chronic stress and are happier with their lives, and these factors fuel stronger performance.”

Zac’s research found that as compared to “low-trust” companies, employees at those organisations with “high trust” performed much better – 106 per cent more energy at work, 50 per cent higher productivity, 13 per cent lower sick days, 29 per cent greater satisfaction with their lives, 40 per cent less burnout, and 76 per cent greater engagement! He attributes this to oxytocin – his experiments showed that having a sense of higher purpose stimulated its production, and so too did trust.

Zac goes on to suggest eight management practices that can build trust:

1. Recognise excellence.
2. Induce “challenge stress”.
3. Give discretion in how to do the work.
4. Enable job crafting.
5. Share information broadly.
6. Intentionally build relationships.
7. Facilitate whole-person growth.
8. Show vulnerability.

The trusted leader

The leaders best placed to build trust within their teams are those who have high personal credibility. This is the creditability that’s built on their technical competence but is emboldened by their values, grown on their leadership approach, and defined by their success. But to be effective, it requires trust. And as Stephen Covey said: “Trust is a combination of character and competence.” And I’d argue that it can’t be one attribute or the other – your technical ability might get you the respect of others, but it’s your values, authenticity and character traits that seal the deal.

The personal character traits that deliver a leader’s credibility are often described as humility, transparency, authenticity, fallibility, courage, and integrity. And integrity is key to spawning trust – it’s the alignment of what leaders say with what they do. There’s no room for hypocrisy. No one will follow a leader who requires others to “do as I say, and not as I do”. Actions are the objective proof of a leader’s genuineness and reliability.

Much has been written by academics and researchers much smarter than me about the attributes of highly effective leaders. It’s difficult to distil the key attributes of the “gold standard” for leadership, but for the sake of this discussion, I’d suggest that in a law firm, the trusted leaders will usually exhibit these skill sets:

1. Competence – highly regarded as being very good at what they do (because your personal credibility depends on this).
2. Self-awareness – both internally (insight into themselves, their values and beliefs) and externally (aware of how others perceive them and are capable of empathy). This requires high levels of emotional intelligence.
3. Highly effective communicators – capable of articulating ideas and concepts, encouraging open communications within the team, and, most of all, prepared to listen to others and be receptive to new ideas. They give and willingly receive feedback. They are also able to simplify the complex and make it understandable and digestible by others in the team.
4. Judgment based on experience – good leaders make sound judgments based on their learnings over a long period. They learn from their mistakes, and they bring a degree of wisdom to the decision-making table.
5. Visionaries – good leaders are not just people who can see the “big picture”, but they can intuitively see the best path forward.
6. Empowering and developing – a talented leader will be able to empower others and then support them to grow professionally.
7. Resilience – they don’t crack under pressure but react with grace and diplomacy. They don’t blow up when faced with challenging circumstances but keep a level head, put the situation into perspective and act appropriately and with long-term vision.
8. Relationship builders – effective leaders can develop and maintain strong relationships with all stakeholders – including team members.
9. Openness and transparency – great leaders create a culture in which open dialogue is the norm. They build trust through transparency and honesty and never hide bad news. This often requires risk and putting yourself out there. There is no more powerful trust-building technique!
10. Humility with confidence – the best leaders are not arrogant or narcissistic. They admit to their mistakes, and they are happy for others to know that they, too, are fallible.
11. Driving accountability – great leaders not only have a vision, but they also explain and articulate it in clear terms, and they are able to articulate the way forward with clear and measurable goals. They provide a clear sense of accountability; when their teammates think, “Can I count on this person?” There should be a resounding “yes”.
12. They handle conflict – they don’t shy away from having awkward and difficult conversations and are happy to have those eyeball-to-eyeball discussions willingly and confidently. They know that hard conversations are the price of admission to a leadership position.
13. Fairness – their commitment to integrity means that they prioritise the interests of the team and other stakeholders over their own, and they avoid favouritism at any cost.
14. No excuses – because there aren’t any!
15. They set the standard – great leaders know that people watch your hips, not your lips. In establishing credibility, actions speak louder than words.
16. They celebrate success – good leaders give feedback – both positive and constructive. They look to be real and genuine (not just cheerleaders) in the plaudits that they give to team members when it’s appropriate or necessary.
17. Authenticity – great leaders are true to themselves and don’t pretend to be something they are not.
18. They have empathy – empathetic leaders will see the world through the eyes of the other person, demonstrate that they understand the dilemma, offer a solution to bridge gaps, give reasonable and necessary accommodations, and provide an opportunity to build capability moving forward.

Leadership training

In 2023, Kristen Kizer authored an article for employment site Zippia in which she shared its data on leadership, and the results should send alarm bells ringing! According to their statistics:

1. Eighty-three per cent of organisations believe that it’s important to develop leaders.
2. Only 5 per cent of businesses have developed leadership programs.
3. Only 10 per cent of people are “natural” leaders.
4. Another 20 per cent of people have the raw skills to be developed into leaders.

Adam Grant shared in his podcast that most of us assume that you must build trust to be vulnerable. But the opposite is true. Vulnerability is so pertinent to thriving leadership.

Grant goes on to say that in every walk of life, if you look at great crews or teams, you’ll see trust at the heart of their success. If you don’t trust the people on your team, you’ll end up playing it too safe. Trust makes it possible to aim higher, to leap further and to know that someone truly has your back if you fall. I pose this to law firm leaders: can you imagine the success and fulfilment of your individuals if you invested in supporting and training their leaders more?

A question of trust

Perhaps part of the problem is the disconnect between how leaders see themselves and how their teams perceive them. There is ample research to prove the mismatch between how leaders in organisations rate their performance and capability against how their subordinates view them. It’s as if self-absorption and narcissism are character traits acquired on promotion to a leadership role! Do law firm leaders avoid 360-degree feedback and introspection in case their own shortcomings might be revealed?

If we know that trust builds engagement and improves team performance, should we not prioritise and resource the training required to develop leadership skills in those who wield the greatest influence in our firms? And how do we close the gap between our leaders’ perception of their skills and that of the team they lead? Most importantly, how do we create a high-performing culture built on trust and proven by results? And maybe, just maybe, it’s time that law firms recognise that leadership skills and billable hours don’t exist on the same continuum.

Travis Schultz is the managing partner of Travis Schultz & Partners.