Pep Guardiola has rewarded Manchester City for placing their trust in him (Picture Shutterstock)
So you work with someone who’s usually a bit of a d***head – quite abrupt, brusque, even rude to clients sometimes, which takes a bit of clearing up. If she’s decided the meeting’s unimportant she won’t be coming, no matter what you say. As for social bits, forget it.
But you know if she’s said she’ll be there or get something done, it happens.
One of your other colleagues is polite and lovely to talk to, but flaky. She’ll apologise endlessly for missing a deadline at the last minute, or ghost you in the run up, until you eventually figure out what’s about to happen. Some days she’ll be first in with a big round of expensive coffees for the team, other days, no sign.
Who do you prefer working with? Who would you want on the football team I trust you’ve joined since my last column? Both people clearly have a lot going on, and both could probably improve their working practices. But even if you put a higher price on social niceties than I do – you’d want to pick the first one every time. Why? Because you can trust the d***head. (In case of a major misunderstanding: this is not a motto for life. Many d***heads can also be untrustworthy.)
But trust – in work and in life – makes the world work. Trustworthiness is demonstrated in two key ways: through competence and by having integrity. That basically means having a code of behaviour and sticking to it – even if, as with our first colleague, your approach is not universally loved.
Gareth Southgate has made the latter mainstream, though there will never be enough competence in the world for an England manager to possess.
In a company or a sports team, trust is vital. Half of all the people who want to change their jobs don’t trust their employers. And what about outside of work? In a 2021 poll 18 per cent of Americans said they had only one person or nobody they could trust for personal help. That’s 46 million people lacking trust in their lives.
That’s why trusting teams prosper. Many top coaches, like Pep Guardiola, arrive with competence-based trust secure. Manchester City believed he could make them win, and so it proved. Making him a man of his word (integrity and trust).
Trust is in place for Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool (Picture: Getty)
And a combination of both trust factors is strongest. The way Jurgen Klopp announced his departure from Liverpool was a case in point. Not for Klopp some rushed exit, links with other Premier League clubs and a rift with the fans. No, he stated his boundaries, expressed his love for the club, explained why (‘I am running out of energy’) and laid out what would happen next. During his period in management, barring the Europa League, Liverpool have won everything.
This is not a quality you can deploy at random – trust is a relationship game, you can’t pick and choose when to showyour integrity.
Players working under Ange Postecoglou know this. His man-management style may be distant, but it is consistent with a clear purpose: he wants to be one of the best coaches in the world. He has reflected that he might have had a nicer life by being a bit friendlier, more social, but his focus is on building the best team. That’s competence covered – wrapped up in his personal code of ethics, no matter whether you like it, mate.
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But what of the dangers of trust? Surely the trusting get caught out more often? Are more vulnerable to scams? Well, oddly enough, no.
The European Social Survey looked at trust levels and how they related to income. The scale was one-ten, where ten is the highest trust. Income peaked at eight. So trust more, get paid more. In a separate study, trusting people were better at detecting lies.
All of which means there is no downside to more trust in your life and what top football managers do can work for us, too. Here are three good ways: demonstrate trust early – people want to live up to your estimation. Second, do what you say you will. And, if you’re a boss, don’t make being untrustworthy worthwhile. Oh, and win the Champions League, that goes without saying.
MORE : Pep Guardiola tells Real Madrid president to ‘fix’ problem after Man City draw