Over the next few weeks I thought we could consider how healthy our work teams are. And I’ll start off with trust as an indicator. Before reflecting on our level of trust in our teams, let’s agree what we mean by trust in the team. When we talk about trust in our team, we are referring to the belief we have that each of our team members has the necessary skill-sets, including competence, reliability, and integrity among others, to deliver the expected quality of work, make meaningful contributions towards team goals, and offer positive support to others.
If we look at each element more closely:
Competence:
The extent to which we believe the team mate is suitably skilled and has enough knowledge to execute tasks and fulfil the mandate.
Reliability:
The degree of assurance, or confidence, that the team mate will follow through on commitments and deliver as contracted.
Integrity:
The feeling of comfort knowing the team mate will do the right thing and not embarrass or undermine the team.
Psychological Safety:
The extent to which team mates feel safe around each other to admit fears, struggles and mistakes, and ask for help without fear of judgment.
There are other factors which we will consider individually over the next few weeks. In this instalment we focus on trust because of its importance and significance in the team environment. When there is trust, ideas, concerns, even criticism is shared openly in a mature and constructive way that facilitates decision-making, camaraderie, and a willingness to work together without micro-managing each other. In a word, trust in the team environment fosters growth, productivity and the attainment of goals.
Building trust is as much the responsibility of the team member as it is that of the team leader. We start by demonstrating integrity in our own actions, we listen to others and acknowledge them, we are respectful in our engagements and we allow colleagues space to do their work and make their decisions. The word ‘allow’ here is deliberate, because in cases where we don’t trust our colleagues, even if at a very sub-conscious level, we often find ways to test them, supervise their work, offer unsolicited guidance, and position ourselves as quality standards in the team, which only builds resentment, demotivates the subject of our mistrust and pollutes the team space. Which leads me to the last two benefits of trust in the team. When there is trust, the team is free to genuinely say what needs to be said, whether that would be to correct or commend each other. Did you know there are team profiling tools that can support your team building and trust enhancing initiatives? Contact us for more details.
