Building internal trust is important for business leaders because that trust can help drive a company’s growth. And that can mean focusing on cross-functional collaboration and building those relationships across a company, so that every single employee has a voice.
“I spend a lot of time with my chief people officer and my CIO and my chief revenue officer [as] I do with my finance team,” said Gina Mastantuono, chief financial officer of ServiceNow. “And so the ability to stay aligned and drive shared metrics, whether it’s our differentiators, whether it’s our net new ACV growth, whether it’s profitability….it’s all about trust and relationships. And if you don’t spend time, really trying to build that trust, you’re missing a real opportunity to lead.”
During a panel on to Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Laguna Niguel, Calif. on Tuesday, three female business leaders pointed to their own experiences as examples of how they’ve worked to build trust, and why it’s more important now than ever.
“Trust is really the currency of growth,” said Stacy Janiak, Deloitte’s managing partner and chief growth officer.
And that can mean getting back to basics and making sure leaders are committed to the company’s purpose and mission, which in turn will inspire people within the organization—especially in times like these that are filled with uncertainty.
With the pandemic out, things have changed—there’s an emphasis on wanting work with purpose and an expectation of transparency from employers—both of which are difficult to implement as a leader.
“As a leadership team, it’s really hard to communicate because you don’t have all the answers,” Mastantuono said. “And how can you be comfortable and vulnerable to tell your 20,000 employees, I don’t have all the answers, but you still need to talk.”
You don’t have to have all the answers, he says, but you do have to explain how you think about it. Mastantuono gave an example of returning to the office. He didn’t know when or what that change would be, so he made it clear. But Mastantuono also told his employees that the decision will be made while putting their health and safety first.
Janiak gave the example of the company’s first issuance DEI Transparency Report after the death of George Floyd. In doing so, the company has put all its data out there, showing the progress they have made in terms of representation, but there is still more work to be done.
Blackstone’s global co-head of real estate, Kathleen McCarthy gave her own example of the company’s purchase of one of the largest affordable housing portfolios in the country. The previous owner, he said, was trying to get most of the housing and move it to market rate. But Blackstone didn’t want to do that, he said, so it preserved the housing and could even build more affordable housing.
“Operating in a higher integrity way is really powerful, and a very powerful way to engage our team around it as well,” McCarthy said.
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