How do you build trust in a team?

Do you really trust your team and do they trust you?  What exercises can you recommend to build trust in a team? How do you measure team trust or rebuild it? Why is team trust so important? These are some of the questions I’m often asked as an executive team coach. So, in this post I would like to share some of my personal insights into this important topic.

Of course, there is a lot of information available online providing answers to these questions so the solutions are not secret. However, it is in working through these questions within a team setting that is much more effective than tackling them alone. Reading about team trust and actively pursuing it as a team are two very different things.

 This is why professional team coaches are wary about individuals working in isolation of each other, when it takes a collective commitment. Team-building exercises may be helpful to create team cohesion however, for me, the way you build trust in a team is not a one-off exercise. It’s a way of life. Team trust is all about the behaviours that team members exhibit to each other. It's also about the behaviours leaders demonstrate and the strength of the relationships the team has within itself.

How I build trust in a team

1. I help teams to identify who they trust and why
   What is a worthwhile exercise to create better team connection is for each member to consider the people they trust. This is something I often get the teams I work with to think about. If you examine what drives that trust, then you start to see what needs to be done to nurture it. A regular response is that trust is based on the longevity of a relationship. So, there is no quick fix when it comes to building team trust. We tend to trust people that know us well, who understand us and who we can relate to.  
   
   

2. We focus on discovering exactly who our colleagues are
   The process of building trust within a team is all about facilitating conversations where team members can discover who their colleagues are and what they are all about. So they can understand what’s important to each individual and how they like to work. This creates better understanding and starts to foster stronger relationships on a personal level and this then develops into more effective connections and that translates into trust.
   
   

3. I help team leaders connect with their teams honestly
   Another important factor is credibility. Again, if each team member thinks about who they trust most in their lives, it’s those they perceive as being credible. This is key for leaders as they need to get the balance correct between showing they're credible while accepting they don't know everything.  It’s vital to be honest about one’s weaknesses and indicate that you don’t have all the answers. Without showing some vulnerability a leader can come across as arrogant and more importantly is role modelling behaviour that encourages their team to work as individuals and not harness the team’s collective strengths.
   
   

4. I model the process of active listening and reflection
   So, I am not big on team-building exercises as such. I think more can be achieved by helping teams develop a better understanding of each other and trust will flow from that. One thing that really does help, is having a team coach who engages in active listening. The coach can observe a team meeting and look at how the members communicate with each other and then play that back to the team. It’s amazing how effective this process can be as the coach shares his/her observations with them.

Deflecting misunderstanding and disconnections

Of course there are many other ways to build trust in a team, but in my experience if you embrace these four you will start to see swift results.

I conclude with a glimpse into me as a person and how I learnt to be a better team member myself. By way of example, my personality style is quite reflective (for those Myers Briggs fans out there, I definitely have ‘I’ preferences). So, I might be in a meeting, listening to what's going on, yet all you see is me looking out a window or staring into space. Now, if you know me well enough you’ll realise that is me absorbing the information, reflecting and processing it. However, if you don't know much about me, you're probably going to think I'm disengaged and possibly rude because it seems that I'm not paying attention.

You may have someone like this in your team that irritates you somewhat. Perhaps you have misunderstood them.  Sometimes it takes an independent observer to notice some of these things from the sidelines and then to engage the team in conversation about them. This is one of the reasons why I am so passionate about team coaching because an external coach can more easily pinpoint and deflect misunderstandings and disconnections.

Through this process I have learnt to change my own behaviour to consider other team members. It has taught me a degree of self-awareness, where I am now sensitive to the times I need to exhibit that I am actively engaging in listening. That is, actively giving off signals that show people that I hear what they are saying. In the same way team members can start to understand each other better and this starts to create a greater sense of trust.

Sarah

If you would like to discuss how you can build trust in a team or the process of working with a team coach, please email me at sarah.parr@sirise.co.uk to discuss your particular coaching needs.