"Leave it with me."
Four words every manager says. In my experience, they decide more about trust than any big decision we make.
A rep asks about a sample delivery, an expense claim, a doctor who wants a meeting with the medical team. We say we will look into it. The week gets busy. Nothing happens. Nobody mentions it again.
But the rep noticed.
Patrick Lencioni puts trust at the base of any working team. I have found it is not built in team-building days. It is built, or lost, in small promises.
What I try to do:
Promise less. Only say what I will actually do.
Type every "I will" on my tablet the same day. If it is not written down, I will forget it by Thursday.
If it cannot happen, say so before the date passes. "I could not get an answer yet" keeps trust. Silence loses it.
Close the loop. "I asked. Here is the answer." Even when the answer is no.
The same rule works in the other direction. A manager who keeps small promises can ask the team to keep theirs.
“Reps trust the manager who does what they said, especially the small things.”
Lesson 7 of 19 in Step 5: Motivating and building the team, with the full guide and a checklist for this week.