Building Trust in Teams: A Guide for Leaders

In any workplace, trust is required for effective teamwork. It is also essential to cultivate more collaboration, innovation, and employee engagement in organizations. These are aspects of your culture that are strong enablers for delivering stronger business results.  

As a leader, it is crucial that you understand the nuances of building trust in your team and organization. Building trust is an ongoing process.  Also, it can be built and diminished based on your actions and responses. When done right, trust can create a sustaining positive work environment. 

I will outline below the importance of trust and some steps you can take to build trust in your team and organization.

1) Trust in the workplace – the need and significance

Before we get into how to build it, let’s take a step back and remember why it is important. First of all, trust is the foundation for:

· Effective communication

· Collaboration

· Building a deeper sense of belonging for team members

Also, by building a high-trust company, you can:

· Reduce stress in staff by up to 74%

· Boost energy of the people by 106% at work

· Enhance productivity by 50%

· Reduce sick days by 13%

· Increase engagement by 74% 

Who wouldn’t want these results in their organization?

 2) Lead by example

As a leader, your actions have a huge impact on your people and their willingness to trust you. Hence, lead by example. It showcases that you are dedicated and accountable. It also displays your integrity as an individual. 

When your people see you and other leaders modeling these behaviors, they will develop more trust in you as leaders and will likely emulate these behaviors themselves. Also, it will directly foster a culture of trust from the top down and bottom up. 

3) Encourage open communication 

Another key aspect of building trust requires you to transparently communicate with the team. Your people need to feel you are sharing as much as you can if they will trust you to follow your direction.

It is also crucial to create a space where team members feel comfortable to openly express their:

· Ideas

· Concerns 

· Feedback

They must get assured that their opinions will be taken seriously and no repercussion will be taken if they share their concerns or other thoughts. You will need to listen to your people actively and demonstrate that you respect their true identity and what they are sharing. Let your people know their voices are heard and respected to create open communication and dialogue in service of creating deeper levels of trust. 

With transparent communication, you can break down barriers and cultivate trust among team members. 

4) Foster collaboration and teamwork

Do you want to know how to build trust in teams? Here are some effective strategies –

· Establish intentional leadership - This leadership style encourages teamwork and values collaborative efforts, which will foster an environment of cooperation and shared purpose.

· Make change a positive step – Focus on embracing changes positively. This means letting go of the fear of the unknown. So, accept your team’s failures. And while criticizing them, maintain a positive attitude. If they trust that they can innovate and try new ways of doing their work, they will be more open to continue experimenting to be more impactful in their role.

· Create a group for problem-solving – It is crucial to start encouraging productive problem-solving and open dialogue strategies. 

· Use project management tools to your benefit – Use relevant tools to track teams, improve communication, conceptualize ideas, and organize projects. Also, ensure that you find programs that are better suited for your team. 

· Stay curious – Lastly, help your team explore outside viewpoints. The idea is to not limit the team but to let them become comfortable sharing ideas, concerns, and more. 

When you create a space for teamwork and collaboration, you directly enhance the team’s trust in the organization.

5) Provide opportunities for development and growth 

 Keep in mind, how to build trust in teams is not just about teamwork and open communication. You must provide your employees with enough chances to develop, too. For instance, 

· Mentorship programs  - This is when experienced employees mentor newer and less experienced colleagues. Some of the results of such programs are:

1. Knowledge sharing

2. Skill development

3. Professional growth

· Cross-functional projects - This is when you allow collaboration across different teams or departments. This allows employees to:

1. Work on diverse projects

2. Interact with colleagues from different backgrounds.

3. Develop a broader understanding of the organization’s operations. 

Such practices will make the members feel supported in their career advancements. In fact, the employees will trust your organization as a whole, as well as your leadership because they will feel their development is important and the organization is looking out for them. Anything that can help your staff reach their full potential is acceptable here!

6) Celebrate success and learn from failures

Both big and small successes need to be acknowledged and celebrated. This should be done both personally and publicly, based on the preferences of the individual. 

It is possible to celebrate success without spending lots of money or taking up a lot of time to do so. Show your appreciating through:

· Sending a Thank You email

· Giving a shout-out in a meeting

· Rewarding the team member with perks like day-off, monetary benefits, etc.

Also, ensure that you are clear when celebrating the success. Link it with the success of the team’s values, vision, or goals. Lastly, don’t forget the contribution of the others in the process. That is how you foster motivation!  Your people will trust that their contributions are being seen and are appreciated.

Now, when it comes to learning from failures, it doesn’t mean minimizing or ignoring them. It means accepting failures as a part of the learning process and using them to improve performance down the line. 

As a leader, you can set an example. For instance, when there is a failure, discuss with the team:

· What went wrong?

· What could be done better?

· What did we learn from the failure?

· How can we apply the learning for the next project?

 The data gathered through such discussions can come in handy in analyzing the root causes and be better next time. 

In conclusion

Building trust is a multifaceted endeavor. It requires empathy, consistency, and intentionality. Check in with your people to gauge their trust levels and explore with them what can be done to improve the trust levels in your teams and organization as a whole.  

Contact us should you need more support building trust in your team or organization. 

We have tools and experiences that will support this important journey.