A Team Building Program to Build Trust in Teams
Building trust in teams is not as complicated as people make it out to be. I’ve worked with many companies and organizations to help them develop trust and they consistently marvel at how much better their workplaces function when people trust each other and value each other’s abilities and talents.
One of the biggest obstacles to building trust in teams is the erroneous assumption that trust is earned. I encourage leaders and employees to trust freely and frequently. When people are miserly with trust, it says more about their own fears, insecurities, and need for power and control than about the other party involved.
So how can you begin building trust in your teams? Here are some key ideas to consider:
- Assume everyone is trustworthy.
- Trust people unconditionally.
- Give people the opportunity to succeed.
- Focus on rewards rather than punishment.
- Educate or provide additional training if needed.
- Listen actively to people.
- Treat people with kindness and empathy.
- Avoid power differentials.
- Stay away from favoritism.
- Give everyone a voice.
- Let people choose how they wish to contribute.
- Assume that people are able to make decisions.
- Be open to and validate all ideas and input.
- Praise all team members equally.
- Model positive team building.
Imagine what your teams would be like if everyone knew how to practice these behaviors. You’d see a remarkable increase in people’s desire to collaborate, productivity would likely rise and you’d get more done with less effort.
Building trust in teams does not require magical knowledge, just a will to do things differently. I recommend that trust begin at the top; leaders should demonstrate that they are able to trust their employees and implement policies and programs that help everyone in the organization learn valuable skills to get along better.
You can build a workplace culture of trust at any moment. All it takes is deciding to teach yourself and your employees how to do it. It’s up to you when you get started. Cheers, Guy.