There are a number of crucial elements required to create high performing teams. I have worked with many different types of teams in different contexts over the past 25 years and have picked up a few strategies that might help. The foundational element needed to create an effective team is that often elusive characteristic of TRUST! Despite what people say trust is earned. But don’t look at this as an obstacle – “Just go out and earn it!”
There are some fundamental steps to take in order to earn trust. One key is to take the time to understand your team member’s perspectives on trust. It helps to understand that there are four main characteristics of trust, and people tend to have a more dominant focus on one or two of these characteristics. The four main traits of trust are reliability (do what you said you would when you said you would), openness (being transparent to feel free to share information and opinions with team members), acceptance (that I know if I share something about our work, no matter how negative it might be, that I as a person am respected and safe from personal attack) and directness (not brutal bluntness, but feeling free to directly give and receive helpful feedback) (Dr. Ralph Colby).
Inevitably, we all tend to view others through our own interpretive filters, thus if a team member (or team leader for that matter) highly values reliability and another in the team esteems acceptance it can cause a value conflict, undermining team trust. What can happen is that the person high on reliability may show intolerance to the team member who has not followed through, in turn, this may contribute to them feeling rejected as a person (the opposite of acceptance). I am sure you get the picture. It is therefore imperative for the team leader to discover which traits are highly valued by each team member and to educate the team on the traits and the perspectives of each member.
Being a team leader is a journey and in a perfect world we would implement all the perfect strategies from the beginning, but we don’t live in a perfect world. So if you haven’t worked on these elements, I want to encourage you to start today. It is never too late to start implementing trust-building strategies, well almost never too late, if you know what I mean. When you understand how your team members perceive and express TRUST, then it will help you and the whole team to know how to flex your styles to build this crucial foundation for a high performing team.
So how does one turn this theory into practice? What I have done which has worked extremely well is simply to explain these four elements of trust and then ask my team members to write down the one or two elements that they most resonate with. Once everyone has written something, I get them to share their responses and am amazed of the different perspectives in the room. Then I get them to share what strategies they think need to take place for them to work best with each other. Finally, I promote discussion on how this will assist the team to increase its effectiveness.
I am sure that you can use your imagination and apply these elements in contextual ways that will best suit your team’s needs, and help them to develop practical strategies for greater effectiveness. But please, do not underestimate the importance of building this foundational component within your team! It may mean as a leader, if you have been late on deadlines or following through and you have a number of members in your team who measure trust through reliability that you need to pick up your game in this area. So think about how you as a leader need to build greater trust. Furthermore, think about what needs to happen between team members and coach each individual member to take responsibility for their part in the success of building trust. Over time, it will contribute to greater performance from your team.
Don’t forget if you ever need any help in implementing these types of strategies let’s connect up and work it through together.
David Allan (Executive Coach) BSc. MBus