Staff engagement is another key element in building communication trust. A fully engaged staff member is one who “is motivated to give the extra effort that advances the goals of the company. When you are fully engaged, you want to go the extra mile.”

This definition is just slightly adapted from the book WE (Karson and Kruse, John Wiley and Sons, 2011) -- the very title of which makes it relevant to our study of communication trust.

Companies spend thousands of dollars on motivational training, much of which is totally wasted. In general, staffs get fired up after a motivational training session because most motivational trainers are firebrands and excellent communicators. Problem is that the fire soon burns itself out and dies very quickly to ashes, and the company’s money is burned up with it.

The reason that companies are prepared to burn money like this is that they have based their need for a motivational programme on the mistaken premise that all is internally well with the company.

Staffs need to work within a fully functional operating system, and many companies do not provide this. So the newly motivated staffs find that they come up against the same organisational barriers that they were fighting against before, and this is a sure fire way to dampen the motivational flames.

Even sillier is the fact that managers have, at their disposal, an excellent way of motivating their staff which costs nothing at all, but they seem to loath using it!

Giving credit is the easiest and most effective way to motivate staffs. Yet in my experience, most staffs cannot remember the last time their managers used this effective tool on them. They can remember the times that they have been bawled out when something has gone wrong, but they cannot remember having been given credit!

FOX channel used to run a show called Lies -- the main character in which was an investigator who had the uncanny knack of telling when people were lying!

In one of the trailers for the show, he confronts his key staff at the end of an assignment and rather hesitantly says something like, “It hurts me to say this, but – well done,” at which point he turns on his heel and stalks off!

I fear that many managers are like him! They find it really hard to give credit, even when it is well and truly due!

The excuse given by many managers, whom I have quizzed about this obvious managerial omission, suggest that it isn’t right to praise people “just for doing their job!” My response is always, “Why not?!”

Research has shown, conclusively, that staff engagement is developed and/or strengthened by this simple act, and it could be that praising someone “just for doing their job” may well result in their doing their job even better, more effectively and maybe, more efficiently!

It’s not hard to say, “Thanks for getting the report to me on time,” or “It is really great that you are getting the invoices processed accurately!”

Doing the job right is a meritorious act, in my view, and it deserves to be recognised!

Researchers, who are into happiness as well as engagement, have discovered that if the number of positive comments within a relationship significantly exceeds the negative ones, then the relationship is the stronger! (Yes, it works in a marriage too! In fact, the original research was done in a study of marital relationships.)

Why don’t you set yourself a measurable target?

Offer a credit comment to each of your staff -- and your spouse, and your kids -- at least twice in the next week. Repeat the activity every week, for a month, and see if it makes a difference!

Incidentally, using the show Lies, has a second connotation. The credit needs to be genuinely earned and delivered in a genuine way! Otherwise, there is the risk that it may come across as lies, and that would damage the communication trust that we are trying to develop. 

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