In an interview some time back, the interviewer asked me, “Say, there’s an urgent deadline to meet and one of the key senior members of your team is not available. The work requires your remaining team to work nights and weekends. How do you ensure you deliver?”
I don’t know what answer he expected, but all I could tell him was: if I’ve not built trust with the team beforehand, by being open with them, backing them, supporting them, being in the trenches with them, this deadline is not being met. We can talk about how hands on I would be, how I would parcel out the tasks or give a motivational speech to rouse the team. None of it would matter in the moment if we didn’t trust each other.
Trust brings benefits for everyone, not just the company or the manager. When I was switching roles from CFO to COO within Zoomcar, I wanted one of my most trusted deputies to move to the operations team with me. Having done only finance roles in the past, he asked me what this move meant for his future career prospects. I didn’t know so I said, “I don’t know, but do you trust me to help you get to wherever you want?”. His answer was a simple ‘yes’. He moved to the operations team with me, went on to build a new business line for Zoomcar and has recently founded his own startup. If we hadn’t earned mutual trust, I wouldn’t have had his help in transforming operations and he would not have had the career journey he did.