Team-building

The importance of mutual trust

Trust is foundational for successful relationships, both professional and personal.

Do you have strong levels of trust with each of your team members? Think about where you are with each one individually. Do you trust their COMPETENCE—are they going to do a good job? Do you trust their INTENTIONS—are they honest and making a sincere effort?

Do they trust YOUR competence and intentions?

Make sure you continue to sustain and grow that mutual trust.

On your end, you can follow through on your commitments and keep people in the loop with honest communication.

On their end, you can express your expectations for honesty & integrity, and you can foster an attitude of continuing growth and improvement for everyone on the team—keep people growing their competencies. And you can give people opportunities to show you what additional responsibilities and skills they can grow into.

You can also build the mutual trust among the various team members. Encourage them to have each other’s backs, give rewards for successful team efforts (as well as individual achievements, when merited), and use “benchmarks” rather than competitive reward structures, to prevent unhealthy competition. For example, a salesforce that gives bonuses to each salesperson who makes $X in sales each month builds healthier teams than a salesforce that only gives a bonus to the top seller each month. Don’t give people incentives to compete against and undermine their coworkers.

(Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash)