What happens to an organization when the trust is gone?
Trust is one of the most important aspects of running a business, an organization or - a team. Without trust - both in the sports world and in business - the potential for success in any high-performing group decreases significantly.
That’s what the highly acclaimed leadership expert, New York Times bestselling author, and former CEO, Stephen M. R. Covey, calls the ‘trust tax’.
Trust fosters faster decision-making, smoother communication and reduces conflicts. But lack of trust slows everything down. The hidden costs of mistrust are wasted time, increased supervision and lost opportunities.
Things like micromanaging and double-checking leave employees (or players) afraid to make mistakes and start questioning the competency of the people in charge. Consequently, good employees - or players - may even start looking for new opportunities.
So what happens if you lose the trust from your employees, players and stakeholders overnight?
We may be about to see the repercussions of this play out very soon in Dallas.
Because back in February, that’s exactly what happened. In one swoop, the trust which the Dallas Mavericks regime had accumulated through a handful of relatively successful moves over a couple years, was lost.
After building a roster around the franchise superstar, perhaps luck, perhaps skill, had the Dallas Mavericks on a road to contention. But one man, or a small group of people, decided to change that with one quick and big decision. And at that moment when they traded Luka Doncic, trust went down the drain for pretty much all stakeholders: fans, media people, employees, locals, sponsors, business partners - and players.
Trust is key if you want to build success on any high performing team - and especially in sports. What was lost that night, and the ensuing weeks of media leaks, could affect this franchise for years.
Dallas was just starting to become a destination for free agents. It was becoming a place good players wanted to go to - Klay Thompson’s signing last summer is a testament to this positive development.
But who would want to come to a workplace - or team - that made an objectively poor decision trading their franchise star for pennies on the dollar? How can you trust the leadership’s decision-making process after this - not to mention, how do you know they won’t treat you the same way in the future?
“Nothing attracts and retains people like a high trust team. A high trust culture. Nothing repels people like a low trust culture”, as Covey points out.
And then we’re back to the low trust tax, which has social as well as economic implications, according to Covey: “High trust organizations outperform low trust organizations by three times. 286 percent. It’s a multiplier.”
But economic implications and less opportunities for free agency signings is just the tip of the iceberg of what the Dallas trust tax could end up costing the Mavs.
Because the truth is that trust is one of the most important aspects of team dynamics and success.
“When the trust goes down you’ll find that the energy goes down with it. As will the joy in all its forms, because nothing is as exhausting as low trust. Emotional energy goes down, as well - that’s passion, creative energy, innovation, engagement. As will joy,” Covey says.
“To an individual you call it happiness, on a team you’d call it fun and in an organization you’d measure it as satisfaction. They’ll all go down when the trust goes down.”
Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd knows this and has pointed to trust as one of the main pillars of coaching and winning.
When I wrote a column praising Kidd for the trust he has managed to build in Dallas last September, I did not expect to be writing a piece on the trust tax the following off-season. Kidd’s emphasis on and understanding of the power of trust has always been clear. As I wrote back then: “Kidd’s approach may be a little unorthodox, but getting the unconditional trust of superstars and role players alike is rare.”
A coach, who bases so much of his approach on trust - between players on a team and in himself as a leader - will now have to pretty much start over rebuilding trust on his team. Most of the players on the Mavs, however, kept going and playing hard through the most difficult times this season, and that is a strong testament to what Kidd has built in Dallas.
“Trust, leadership and vibes are intangible, but just as important aspects of coaching. Unreachable for some, impossible for many. And in order to create a winning team, you have to have the trust of the players no matter what. Over the last three years in Dallas that’s exactly what Jason Kidd has done,” I wrote back in September.
The interesting part will be whether Kidd can hold on to that trust from the players over the next season or two. Will cracks start to show, or will the team manage to work through these issues in the locker room?
The tangible benefits from trust are real. Stronger relationships, enhanced collaboration, and a higher success rate. To put it simply: there’s more winning with higher trust.
Jason Kidd knows everything about the power of trust, but has the regime come to terms with what it will take to rebuild that?
The costly trust tax has already affected people in charge where it hurts the most: the bottom line. Stakeholders of all kinds, like sponsors, fans and business partners will be slow to trust the organization’s competency again, as it stands right now. They will fear being ridiculed, which is the case at the moment, as front offices and media people alike joke about whether the Dallas GM will actually use their number one draft pick or trade it away. Being associated with a brand like that is not good for business.
Cooper Flagg will, of course, help the worst of this, if he ends up in Dallas. Relevancy and interest in the Mavs have increased a little since the lottery, as a generational talent once again is set for Dallas.
But the ridicule and jokes in the corners are not about to go away anytime soon. Competency is being questioned, and if this regime stands, it will pay for its choices for a long time. That’s the trust tax, and it always comes around sooner or later.
The question will linger for years to come: Was it worth it? Time will tell, but tax waits for no man.
Thank you to head teacher at Montpellier Business School, speaker and CEO, Steeve Kunakey, for inspiration and advice.
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