When Stan Moss took over as CEO of investment firm Polan Capital in 2012, he made it part of his mission to create a workplace culture of trust amongst his team members. From his perspective, psychological safety is the pinnacle of workplace trust, and to get there, leadership must take this concept from words to actions. Back in 2012, Moss and his team began by reading Dr. Carol Dweck’s best seller Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, all about growth mindset. Believing that an individual, team, or business can continue to thrive in the face of challenges and failures innately empowers people to both collectively share their ideas, and feel comfortable challenging the way others think.
In order to foster this environment, Moss and his team adopted the practice of giving and receiving real-time constructive feedback, or what they call "radical candor”. It is not possible to maintain a growth mindset when feedback is received from a source deemed untrustworthy. No one enjoys having these difficult conversations, but if the receiver knows that the giver has their best interests at heart, and wants them to grow and thrive in their shared environment, it becomes a lot easier to hear constructive criticism.
To turn these abstract ideas into actions, Polan Capital first made David Horsager’s book Trust Edge a firm-wide mandatory read (they then went on to have Horsager give a keynote speech to the company), highlighting his eight pillars of trust. Every month, one of the eight pillars of trust got its own deep dive, and employees would nominate colleagues they believed embodied that trait. Through this, Moss believes, Polan Capital has ended up on the Pensions & Investments’ Best Places to Work in Money Management list seven years straight.
Establishing this bottom-up approach to trust has also empowered the leadership team to become “radical receivers”. Moss and his team regularly solicit feedback from those working directly with them, and they are committed to holding themselves accountable to it. Asking questions, and remaining open to others’ ideas are key ways in which higher-ups can avoid becoming defensive during these sessions.
As with any cultural shift, this did not happen overnight. It took years of commitment, continued education, and personal growth to get to where they are. But, ten years later the folks at Polan Capital are still thriving in the culture of trust that has been created. Check out Moss’s full article here for more real-world examples of how he and his team walk the walk of psychological trust in the workplace.
