This short Seth Godin piece reminds us that trusting in our team members is not just a good idea but just may be a way increase efficiency, create confident employees, and delight your customers.

“How much do you trust your people to do the right thing?

Consider giving every person on your team a budget-$1000 a year? $200 an incident? and challenging them to spend the money to make things right, to create efficiency, to delight.

At the Ritz-Carlton, every single employee (even the maintenance folks) has a budget of $2,000 per guest to make things right. On the spot, without asking.

Without a doubt, the guest is blown away by this rapid response. A caring person who, instead of saying, “I’ll have to ask my supervisor,” just makes it right. But even more important, I think, is the effect of trusting your people. You’ve already given them the keys to your brand, you’ve already made them the face of your organization-isn’t it time to trust them enough to do the right thing?”

Trusting others to “do the right thing” is easy for some and difficult for others. For those who serve your customers, trust comes after confidence is built in them that they can and will represent you well. Do the work upfront to build their confidence through training, practice and feedback. Your clients and they will thank you!