Discussion on:

Foster employee trust by demonstrating these four traits

The article puts the scenario at the level of individual performer and first line management.

It applies as well moving up through the management layers.

Trust, compassion, and unwillingness to wallow in negative behavior. Sounds good to me. I think this article will be passed around many offices.

Good comments. My experience has shown the it generally takes around 3 months for a team (6 to 10 members) to start trusting the new manager.
It takes at least 6 months for external teams or managers to believe the change (improvements) observed are more than the 'flash in the pan' and are there to stay.
After this time period, it becomes much easier.

Many of the people who work deal with a lot of people, some clients some co-workers. Workers have to make on the spot decisions on service activities, support actions and other people related events. One of the primary building blocks of worker freedom to make decisions is how well they can predict how their supervisor will react to their activities. Predictability is a trait a supervisor must develop to fostor trust and morale in his people. Supervisor availability is another key to leadership but that is another building block beyond the scope of your article.

When you are approached by a collegue or a subordinate, remember to so respond that he returns with higher morale and heightened self-esteem. Running him down, jeering, sarcasm, criticism are a NO NO. Phony praise will be easily seen through. You will be rewarded with his trust. Contrary to what many think, it does not need weeks or months to build trust. If you are consistent and sincere in your responses which must be such as to cause his 'enhancement', trust is established within the first few interactions and within days.

Excellent - esp about integrity ... 100% on the money..

A few mates & I were discussing what an IT manager should really do, and we came up with this - to put it in a context that tech people will appreciate - they are there to provide an abstraction layer - call it the MAL (Management Abstraction Layer) - insulating the IT people from the unintelligible instructions at the management layer and translating them into something that will work at the IT tech layer. They arent there to create new problems for the techs (which is our experience). Face it, tech people's brains are not wired up to deal with management nonsense - this is why they are good techs. And its why good tech managers are such a scarce breed.