TRUST: The Secret of Building Your Community’s Internal Robustness
Hi, leaders🖐
Do you have a dream of building a strong team for your community or organization? If it’s a “yes”, then, this page is for you:)
First of all, let me convey to you that I made this writing so we can discuss (read: sharing experience and knowledge) about this important topic. So, I hope this is gonna be a two-way communication between us. Your journeys in your respected communities are unique, so I am in my community. By then, we know that every story is worth to share and it would be an honor for this page should you want to share it here.
Talking a little bit about me, I’m currently taking the role to lead two different communities, KOMPAS Banyuwangi & Language Ambassador of DKI Jakarta Association. All of them are non-profit organizations.
KOMPAS Banyuwangi is a youth organization aims to empower the youth coming from and/or living in Banyuwangi, Indonesia. This is a hometown-based organization. I started this organization back in 2019 with several friends as our commitment to “give back” to our lovely hometown, Banyuwangi. Since then, we’ve been operating this community “remotely” as every member stays in different cities.
In the other hand, Language Ambassador of DKI Jakarta Association is an organization run by the Language Ambassadors of DKI Jakarta to deliver various programs related to language and literacy. This community has a forever governmental partner which is the Language Cultivation Agency as Language Ambassador is part of their programs.
My positions for the two organizations are both as president. Some friends were asking me “Will you be okay handling two different communities in the same time besides your professional job?” or simply “Are you sure?”😂. My answer has always been “Well, I will not speak a lie that this is gonna be challenging. But, I believe that these roles never choose the wrong shoulders”.
So, here I am now, handling two different communities besides working as a professional. KOMPAS Banyuwangi gives me challenge as I need to liaise with other members remotely. In the other hand, in the Language Ambassador Association, I need to liaise with people of different ages and, as many of them are currently working, it’s a bit challenging to create an agreement on what time we could meet and discuss about some projects or other community’s related stuffs.
Now, the question is “how can we, in KOMPAS Banyuwangi and Language Ambassador Association, keep up with those challenges?” or, to be more specific, “what do I do as a leader to run the communities well amidst the challenges we have?”
It’s mainly about the “trust” my colleagues and I have been building for the communities. It is what keeping us do what we do in KOMPAS Banyuwangi and Language Ambassador Association up until now and then since we know that “we do the right thing” and “we do it with the right people”. It’s also a belief that we are building a “positive sum game” relations in it as we’ll continuously learn and grow together, both as an individual and professional.
Thus, in my perspective, “trust” is a very empowering word. Oxford Dictionary defines this word as “the belief that somebody/something is good, sincere, honest, etc. and will not try to harm or trick you”.
To any community or organization, “trust” is indeed essential. Technically speaking, it’s about giving honor to somebody’s commitment towards the community as well as being open and supportive colleagues for he/she.
As you might have experienced in your journey as a community leader or member, building and maintaining “trust” is HARD. Of course, you will not trust some strangers, will you? So, YES, putting trust to somebody is indeed a big work for you and high-level appreciation towards somebody’s presence.
BUT, trust is dynamic. As time goes by, it’s highly possible that the level of trust you have towards somebody changing. It could be getting ticker or vice versa due to variety of reasons. The fact is this “trust dynamic” could affect the way your community operates (read: it brings your community wherever it goes).
Once the internal relations among community members is robust (read: full of trust and harmonious), it gives bigger opportunity for your community to step up. Yet, when it goes to another way around, it brings threat that you and your community members might never want to face.
Then, next thing to really think about now as a leaders is “how to build and maintain good version of trust for our community/organization?”
- Start with Trust
As we have difficulty to put trust to someone we don’t really know, it’s highly recommended to choose your community members/staffs from somebody you know well. Kindly put into your consideration about his/her commitment towards your community, past experience and achievements, and your personal experience when connecting with him/her.
In my leadership experience, those three aspects are considered as basic requirements. Further, I also put specific focus to really search for “strong” future colleagues whose passionate in what the community needs and tough when dealing with challenges. It used to demanding me more time to really consider about who I will send my offer to, but it’s totally worth the effort.
Why? It’s because by securing strong colleagues at your back, you will gain more confidence in your role as a leader and, of course, it would be easier to put your trust to those buddies who you’ve been selectively choose.
Citing Stephen Covey, the tip to get “strong” colleagues is to choose they who are busy! Why? It’s because busy people try their best to manage their productivity to achieve their goals. Should you want your community achieve its goals someday, give a try to gather these typical busy people to support your community.
Will it be easy to gather those busy people? Well, they also consider selectively. So, make sure that you go to them with a well-planned vision and mission for your community.
2. Operate with Trust
After gathering strong colleagues for your community, now it’s the time to maintain the level of trust “you have for them” and “they have for you”.
As discussed earlier, to start building is hard, but to maintain is even harder most of time. Once you’ve selectively chosen your team, the next thing to do as a leader is to give them space (read: opportunity) to execute their roles for the community. It could be about giving them the autonomy to creatively create the way/method to accomplish their roles, manage their own division, adapt to their unique ways in communicating ideas (yes it’s true that people communicate differently and it becomes the leader task to give honor to it), keep the commitment to always listen with empathy, togetherness in solving community problems, valuing personal differences, etc.
During the process of running your community, there’ll be variety of situations that could affect the dynamic of trust between you as a leader and your colleagues. Those would contribute in making deposit or credit in your “emotional bank account” (EBA).
For example, once your colleague is finishing his/her work for the community on time, it gives more positive picture (read: give additional deposit) about him/her in your EBA. It also directly increases your level of trust towards him/her.
But, if what’s happening is the opposite: your colleague doesn’t finish the work on time without notice, it could result in creating negative occurrence or credit your EBA towards him/her. Thus, it decreases the level of trust in your relationship.
What most important for a leader is your attitude to cope with these situations. Your option to react to the situations matter not only for the present time, but also for the future of your community. By keeping it in mind, you’ll know how important of you making a “wise” reaction towards every situation.
I would portray it as “pull” or “push” action sometimes. As a leader, of course, you need to always look back at the “shared principles” of your community. Most of time, it could be about professionalism in doing the work so you want your colleagues to also stick with it (you give “push”). But, to some extent, giving tolerance towards the conditions faced by your team members, especially when they give sincere accountability regarding what they do, could also give “psychological air” they need to breath and perform well in the next occasions.
Now, you know that one quality that could make you a good leader is your “big heart” (read: patience). Your empathy (rather than just “sympathy”) towards the dynamic conditions faced by your members does matter! Especially, when you’re leading an informal community/organization, giving to much “push” will never end well for your relationships with your teammates and your community. You need to consider your attitude carefully to help them “keep” their commitment towards the community.
But, how if the relations is getting worse and result in the quitting from the community?
3. End with Trust
Nothing lasts forever. People come and go. And, it’s pretty normal for many voluntary based community/organization. “A member choose to quit” doesn’t associate directly with the quality of your community’s internal robustness (since it is also about his/her personal choice), but it’s always good to make it as your community evaluation so it can always be better.
When facing a member who proposes to quit or resigning, the first thing you need to do is listening to their explanation with empathy. Try to put your feet on their shoes because their feeling is VALID.
After that, go try to discuss the potentials of he/she still be with the community or what he/she wants to do after resigning from it. It could be one of the best ways to demonstrate how much you care about your team and the betterment of your community.
One of the sign of your success in listening with empathy is you’re able to discover the root problems faced by your members because they trust you during the communication. Should you think that you need to keep him/her for the good of your community, try to be committed and show your commitment to him/her that you want to bring betterment to the community and the fact that you still need his/her support for the community. Demonstrate that it would be a lot easier to bring the expected betterment if you and your teammates stick together for the good of the community.
However, if their wants to quit exceed your offer, it would be better to respect their decision. Always try to think positively that the decision is for the best of him/her and your community. Quitting doesn’t mean a failure, but it’s like opening a whole new journey for somebody. Give your warm let go and show your gumption to keep in touch with your quitting members.
For whatever reasons they’re quitting, I always thank them for the previous togetherness we shared for the community. You hope for the best for them and they will hope for the best for you and your community too. And, this is a very nice way to end with trust of your community-based relationships with him/her.
People change. And, what we can do is to maintain good relations with others. If your way doesn’t cross for the present time, there is always possibility that it can be crossed in the future. By then, you will harvest the best result of your good relations.
What do you think, guys? Let’s discuss!