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Does your team trust you, and each other?
Our guest blogger this month asks a big question. Building trust is always challenging, but it’s an essential ingredient for organizations to thrive, and even more difficult during times of constant change and turmoil. Newly remote teams are collaborating from a distance, on flexible schedules, with more ways to connect and communicate than ever before. Other teams are returning to the workplace with alternating and often conflicting schedules. Both scenarios are a cause for concern when it comes to building and strengthening trust on a team. There’s more opportunities to hit - or miss.
Kiki Orski is an experienced Performance Improvement Consultant who coaches leaders on working more effectively with their leadership teams, their employees and their clients to improve productivity, engagement and profits. Her company, Peak Performance Consulting is dedicated to helping organizations achieve exceptional performance at every level, starting at the top.
We wanted Kiki’s perspective on the importance of trust. It’s hard to define and measure, so what do we know about the impact of it? And how is trust built? Keep reading for Kiki’s insights, plus her strategies for building and nurturing trust at every level of your team.
Does your team trust you, and each other? I sure hope so, but do they?
Trust is the cornerstone of any relationship, even ones in business. Perhaps now is the perfect time to dust off your trust meter. In a world riddled with conflict, where we are bombarded with information flying at us so fast from every angle that it makes our heads spin, the seriousness of the question is truly undeniable for any leader.
If trust is at the foundation of every solid relationship and organizations are built on relationships, then it would be fair to infer that trust is imperative for a leader to be successful, right? Yet, I do not see many leaders measuring trust on their teams. They measure attendance and goals and objectives, but not trust. I bet they would be surprised (and not in a good way) if they did. In fact, data compared over a 40 year time span in the US shows a significant decline in how much people trust each other. The General Social Survey first asked the question in 1972, and at the time, recorded that only 50% of the population was trusting of others. In 2013, a different poll on trust reflected that respondents felt only one-third of people can be trusted. Would the results be similar today on your team?
Trust matters.
Why does the question “does your team trust you and each other” matter? Here are three compelling reasons for leaders to consider: additional studies which prove that teams who trust you and each other are happier going to work, are more productive, and get better results. Could a lack of trust on your team be the reason you are not experiencing the magnitude of success you truly believe is possible? From my experience working with teams in all sectors of the business world, the answer is YES. There is a very good chance a lack of trust may be inhibiting your team’s ability to succeed as planned.
“If trust is at the foundation
of every solid relationship,
and organizations are built on relationships, then it would be fair to infer that trust is imperative for a leader to be successful, right?”
Is trust alone the cause of a team’s results? Absolutely not! But without a solid foundation of multilateral trust, no other improvement you make will stick over the long run.
There is no process or performance metric that you can implement that will make a profound positive impact to your business if trust is lacking on your team. Sure you may get spurts of improvement, but they won’t be sustainable.
A lack of trust weakens the very foundation of your organization. It might start small and go undetected at first, showing up as tiny fissures that cause instability among your teams. These tiny fissures are always possible, but when a lack of trust does creep in, it causes a magnified, shattered glass effect that ultimately spreads far and wide across your entire organization, from one team to another, impacting every facet of your business.
This brings us back full circle to the original question: does your team trust you and each other? Do they have good reason to trust, or not trust, you and each other? Are there tiny fissures in the foundation of your team caused by a lack of trust that are hard to see, but slowly spreading like cracked glass?
Know, like,
and then trust.
How to Build and Nurture Trust
Trust on a team must be nurtured. In any business, leaders sometimes mistakenly believe that with each promotion comes a new business card that says, ‘now you should trust me’. And that is just not so. There has been a saying used for years in the world of sales. People buy from people they know, like and trust. How is this relevant to leadership, teams and getting results? There is gold in that saying. The golden nugget is where the word trust is placed. Know, like and then trust. The word trust comes last. Improving the levels of trust between you and your team members, and them with each other, begs you to consider addressing the ‘know and like” part of the sequence first. Here are some strategies:
Lead By Example
Get to ‘know’ each of your employees and let them get to know you. You will then be modelling the behavior you expect them to engage in with each other.
Be Likable
2018 Research by McAlister, Moss and Martinko has shown satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior, well-being and performance was higher in employees/subordinates who liked their bosses. Just because your employees like you does not mean they will automatically trust you, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.
Use the Know, Like, and Then Trust Equation
Though there is no business card or magic pill for building trust, we can use the ‘know, like and then trust’ equation as a guide. Here are three ways you, as a leader, can immediately begin to build, and strengthen the levels of trust on your team.
1. Purposefully create opportunities to grow and nurture relationships. Getting to know others better is the first step to building trust.
- One-to-one conversations with each of your team members. Tell them you want to get to know them better so that the team can grow stronger (but please make sure you really do want to…it will be very apparent if you don’t). Be the first to share about yourself. Don’t expect them to begin to share as openly initially and don’t force it. And if they do share…listen carefully!
- One-to-one conversations among your team members. Give them thought provoking questions to ask each other that will encourage conversation. Be sure to clearly communicate your expectation of how many, how often and by when these conversations should occur and then follow up to hear how the conversations are going. Look for personality assessments that boost self-awareness, where team members can identify their own dominant traits (extroverted vs introverted; or skeptical vs. accepting, for example.) I am an award winning authorized partner for Wiley, Inc and have been providing Everything DiSC assessments for 20 years. I am here to guide you on the best assessment to help your team build more trust. Then encourage your team to talk about their results, and how their unique differences impact their ability to work together, support each other, and achieve results together.
2. Carefully consider your verbal and non-verbal communications. We all know how fragile words can be. In order to hold any weight at all, a leader’s words must be reinforced by consistent actions over time. Are you walking your own talk? Research has shown repeatedly that a combination of your words, tone of voice, and body language determine if someone will trust you. Are your words, tone and actions consistent?
3. Intentionally practice adjusting your ‘style’ when interacting with members of your team. Your communication style matters in relationships. Team members are often more comfortable with people who have the same communication style as them. Learn how to adjust yours first so they will feel more comfortable with you. When they are more comfortable with you, it will be easier for you to get to know them. Knowing about communication styles is imperative as a leader.
Use the three simple steps above to begin mastering the ‘know, like and then trust’ equation with your team. If done consistently by you
and each of your team members, it will undoubtedly lead to greater levels of trust as well as increased employee engagement, increased productivity and better business outcomes.
More About Kiki Orski
Kiki has over 20 years of experience coaching and training leaders to achieve exceptional results by improving workplace relationships and transforming business practice. Over the years Kiki has worked with organizations big and small, private and public, union and non-union…and she says they all have one thing in common...everything starts and stops with leadership. It’s why she loves working with senior executive teams on change initiatives, and why she’s often heard saying, “she doesn't care how smart you are if you cannot work with others.” Currently, Kiki is working diligently on finishing her second book, "Smash the Silos,” which is set to publish by Spring 2022.
To learn more about how Kiki and her team can help you navigate change and thrive, visit Peak Performance Consulting, and connect with her directly on LinkedIn.
