During Covid-19, an effective leader I know got blindsided. Several long-time team members lied about their vaccination status, jeopardizing client health and relationships.

Being a resilient guy, he righted the ship – with a change of thinking.

I was reminded of this when Gautum Makunda talked on his podcast – World Reimagined – with Dan Pink about why we go astray when leading with trust and how to get back on track.

Interestingly we generally have challenges with trust due to a “fundamental attribution error.” This means:

  • We tend to overvalue the importance of personality for people like us and have a bias towards hiring them. Then, when something goes wrong, we give the person a pass and blame the situation. As in: “They got pushed into a bad place and had no choice.”
  • With people who are not like us, we tend to over-value the importance of context. So, when something goes wrong, we blame their personality and discount the situation. As in: “It wasn’t the job. They’re anti-social.”

Neither response leads to good outcomes. Because in both cases, we assign blame when we polarize. This can escalate the stakes.

So, this is where my friend believes he got off track. He hired qualified people that he and his clients would like. No reason to think that they might be lying. When they did, he blamed himself and the context. “We didn’t enforce our policy of asking for proof of vaccination. It felt intrusive. That was my fault. But they lied and had to go.” In fact, it wasn’t his fault.

He’s leading with trust again, with a twist. Now he focuses on building a team that shares his vision, even when they’re not “like” him. They craft shared goals, working together to improve processes and procedures. Now problems arise, and they do, it’s easier to address them. With the team on the same page, issues surface sooner and get resolved with less drama. Most importantly, he trusts them and their instincts.

How could you adjust your personal bias to lead more effectively?

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