Employee trust in leadership waning in Asia

Singaporeans, other Asians losing trust in leaders.

There is a growing trust gap in Asia, according to the latest global leadership survey by The Forum Corporation, and could create a negative impact on employee engagement and business processes.

Trust in leadership is one of the key drivers of employee engagement but it is on the decline in Asia, the survey revealed. One in five employees and two in five leaders believe that trust in leadership is lower today as compared to the past.

“Employee trust in leadership is more important now than ever before as organisations grapple with mounting competitive, internal and external pressures. But we are seeing a decline in this critical element of the employee-manager relationship. This can be extremely detrimental as lack of trust directly reduces employee engagement and impacts morale and workforce productivity”, says Cynthia Stuckey, Managing Director of Forum in Asia-Pacific.

Conducted with close to 1,000 respondents globally from 12 countries including Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines, China and India, Forum’s Leadership Pulse Survey aims to illustrate the inherent connection between trust in leadership and employee engagement. It also seeks to investigate how leaders handle mistakes and whether employees are more trusting of leaders who admit to their shortcomings.

While leaders in Asia say they admit to (97.2 per cent) and apologise (99 per cent) for their mistakes, employees do not agree. In fact, five out of 10 employees (50 per cent) say that their leaders rarely or never apologise.

The overwhelming fear of looking incompetent or weak in front of employees is cited as the main reason why leaders in Asia do not shoulder up for their mistakes. The majority (67 per cent) of leaders believe saying sorry will make them look incompetent, while another 25 per cent believe they would look weak in front of their employees.

“The concept of ‘face’ is highly important in Asia and significantly influences leadership style across organisations in this region,” Cynthia explains. “’Losing face’ by demonstrating weakness and incompetence is considered to diminish the stature of the leaders in the eyes of his or her subordinates.”

By not owning up to their mistakes, leaders risk losing their employees’ trust but the study also finds other “bad boss behaviors” that could contribute to this erosion of confidence. These include lying, taking credit for others’ ideas or blaming employees unfairly, gossiping, poor communication and lack of clarity in giving directions.

There is a strong agreement between leaders and employees around the importance of trust in leadership. Leaders also gave building trust a high priority, with over 96.5 per cent considering it of “great” or “very great” importance.

In order to inspire trust, employees ranked “walking the talk” at the top (61 per cent), followed by spending time and listening (54 per cent) as key activities. Employees also highlighted the value of encouraging employees to offer ideas and feedback, following through on commitments, and providing consistent messages to their teams.

“Trust is a critical component of a successful employee engagement strategy that increases productivity and performance,” adds Cynthia. “Building and strengthening trust in leadership is a multifaceted process that requires leaders to truly understand what their employees expect of them – to act with integrity, to provide coaching, to communicate openly and to build a positive climate.”