The Internet allows businesses to communicate their success or failure within seconds in today’s fast-paced, hyper-competitive business environment. In much of organizational leadership, the knee-jerk reaction is to minimize risk by clamping down on the quantity of information that is shared internally. Most of the time, this backfires and creates an atmosphere of distrust and risk aversion.

Social media programs are essential for small businesses to thrive in today’s highly competitive marketplace. It is important to do one thing before anything else when developing a social media plan for your small business, even before determining who your dream customers are and where they are congregating. You need to create an open and trustworthy culture! To maintain a competitive edge over large corporations, small business leaders need to build a culture of trust and openness among their employees. In doing so, they should follow these four strategies:

Leadership must encourage risk-taking – Leaders should extend their trust to their followers by taking the first step. A leader’s actions and words can convey a sense that responsible and appropriate risk-taking is encouraged and rewarded. Having the confidence to contribute to the organization makes people less likely to engage in CYA (cover your “assets”) behavior and more willing to take the chance of failing. Without a willingness to take risks, organizations today will not be able to innovate and be creative. When practice #2 is in place, a culture of risk-taking will be possible.

View Mistakes as Learning Opportunities – Imagine yourself going through the grueling 8-week BootCamp to join the Navy. See the mistakes you make as opportunities to learn from them. You take a risk/reward shot on a live course after spending time on the practice range with your instructor. When you mess up the shot, your drill sergeant becomes unhinged. “Is this the best you can do, soldier?” he asks. He responds, “What were you thinking? That was one of the worst shots I’ve ever seen!” Not exactly the kind of leadership that inspires greater risk-taking, is it? This differs from a question such as “What did you think went wrong? What will you do differently next time?” When I built GMM Creative to become a 7 figure agency, I used these incidents as “learning moments.” This is where planning and execution collide, a result is achieved, and the findings are incorporated into future plans.

Create a culture of trust and openness through transparent business practices – Leaders can create a culture of trust and openness by ensuring transparency in their processes. In order to improve transparency, organizations should put in place systems for promoting high participation in change efforts, discuss decision-making criteria openly, give and receive feedback, and ensure policies and procedures are applied fairly and equitably across the board. For each leader, it is essential that they remember their people are curious about their values, beliefs, and what drives their actions and decisions. Southwest Airlines’ emeritus president, Colleen Barrett, is fond of saying that people will love you for your vulnerabilities, but respect you for what you know.

Share information openly – Unless people are provided with information, they will fabricate their own version of the truth. It leads to misinformation, gossip, rumors, and a lack of focus on the mission, which leads to people questioning leadership decisions. Leaders who share details about their organizations and themselves gain credibility and trust from their followers. A culture of accountability can be maintained when people are provided with all the information they need in order to make intelligent business decisions.

For organizations to achieve success, it is essential to establish a culture of trust, openness, respect, and engagement. How else can organizations achieve success? Head on over to Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn to share your thoughts in the comments section of the post.