Getting to know your audience

Trust, a word that we use as people to apply to relationships. This could be a relationship that you have with your significant other, with the company you work for, or the grocer that provides you with your weekly supply of bananas. We find that as a people, once we trust something or someone, it becomes a comfort for our needs. The person, for example, that we live with every day that knows our strengths and weaknesses and loves us anyway. The business that provides us with a job and career path that also trusts us to do our job and do it well. The grocer that we believe will give us good food and trusts that we will come back again next week. You can say that trust is the cornerstone to the relationships in all we have around us.

As an HR professional, the most important trust that you can establish when going into a new business is the trust of your employees. The best way of doing that, is getting to know them. In the subject of this blog I used the word "audience". What is your first impression or future impressions? How can the audience know you are trustworthy? The answer is simple, listening and communication. Human Resources sometimes has the reputation of being the place where there are always policies and procedures and discipline and all of that.  However, what I hope to convey when I am working with my new employees is a person to trust. Establishing trust is hard and takes time and takes patience on both the part of the HR professional and the employees. The steps I think are very simple.

The first step is to get to know the audience. The employees and the managers are your audience and the only way to know them is to talk to them. When you first begin your process, have meetings with your employees and managers. The important thing to do in these meeting is LISTEN. If you are listening, you will find out all you need to know about relationships, processes and dynamics.

The second step is to be a part of the team. Communication beyond the questions related to HR is the best way to have the employees get to know you, you get to know them, and also establish a trust. Every morning, go around the office and say hello to employees. This needs to be genuine. Ask them about their morning and make sure it is authentic and heartfelt.  Another option would be find out similar interests that you may have with your employees. This does not mean you are best friends (which I do not encourage), but something that you both like and talk about. In my last position, one of the employees and I liked the same TV show. We would have a 5 minute conversation on Monday mornings about the last episode and what we thought would happen next. The bottom line here is, to trust, you must show you are the same. You have a position to uphold, but you are also a person with interests that has interest in them.

The third step and most important step is - your door MUST ALWAYS be open. Trust takes time and you will know that your employees depend on you, when they come to your door and want to talk. It is important to stop what you are doing, put on your listening hat and give them your undivided attention. The problem they are bringing you may be simple fix, it may take time, or it may be potentially impossible, but to them, they are asking you to help and that is your job. Establishing trust and maintaining relationships is the key to knowing your audience. They need to trust you that you will listen and do your best to help. I would lead your quest to know your audience with honesty. There is not a single person I know that comes out feeling better if they were deceived into thinking something that wasn't true. Some decisions or conversations are hard to do, but honesty in all things will be the reinforcement of trust for you and your employees.

A final story: I knew a young business professional once who was trying to start a business. He had all the background and had been in the business for a while and felt he was ready to branch out on his own. He made a business plan and was ready to go and touted that his business would be the best that anyone had seen. However, the first time he was around his audience, those he would be working with and serving, they laughed at him. They looked at each other and wondered who he was and why he believed his product would be best for them. This professional made one big mistake, he didn't know his audience. He didn't take the time to talk to people, to listen and to then build relationships. In the end, the audience he hoped to have, didn't trust him.

Building trust is about you and what you do to listen, leave your door open, and get to know your audience truthfully.