Trust and turning up – leading through change

The latest session in the 2022 Berwick Partners Emerging Leaders Programme focussed on leading through change and maintaining resilience. We were delighted to be joined by guest speaker Carol Matthews, Group Chief Executive of the Riverside Housing Group. Carol spoke candidly about her experience, learnings and how she is taking her organisation through a period of change; a merger with One Housing Group to become one of the biggest landlords in the UK.

Trust – How do you create it?

Carol spoke about Trust being the key leadership skill when leading an organisation through change and challenges. Consider a scenario in which lack of trust prevails. If your team doesn’t trust you, as a leader, they’ll be reluctant to follow, and aren’t likely to apply their best efforts. As a leader, if you don’t trust your team, you will more than likely be micromanaging, looking over everyone’s shoulders and stalling progress.

Carol then went on to explain ‘The Four Elements of Trust’ and how, when combined, can instil reciprocal trust between leaders and their teams.

• Reliability
  People you relate to want to know if you do what you say you will do. As a leader, you need to ensure people have the confidence that you will make good on your promises, take action and turn up, even when it’s tough.
• Acceptance
  All people want to be accepted for who they are. As a leader, you need to ensure people do not feel judged, criticised, or made to feel inferior.
• Openness
  People want to cooperate with people who will ‘level’ with them. As a leader you need to give people the whole story – don’t bury bad news.
• Congruence
  The knowledge that what you do, is on track with you believe, what you know to be true and what you do. Sincerity is a key leadership skill. Set boundaries, make rules clear and walk the talk!

Hear more from Carol Matthews

To hear more about Carol, her career, and her advice for Emerging Leaders, listen to our podcast – Emerge: Leadership Lessons with Carol Matthews, Chief Executive of The Riverside Housing Group

Get involved in Emerging Leaders

The programme is designed to give direct interaction and active mentoring from exceptional business leaders and coaches, who bring proven experience in delivering market and business-defining change, as well as displaying the ability to consistently evolve and remain at the forefront of their chosen field.

There are several ways for you to get involved with the Emerging Leaders Programme, from speaker and mentor opportunities to becoming a participant yourself.

To find out more, please click here.