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able to work as a team. Coworkers can help build trusting relationships in sever
al ways: clearly communicating the value each brings to the team, demonstrating
commitment to meet team expectations and being thorough enough to catch and fix
the problems that will inevitably pop up from time to time.
Trust as a foundation for high performance means just that: trust comes first. W
hen we try to make the plan before the trust issues are resolved, we deal with s
ymptoms rather than causes and repeating problems just change names.
Defining Trust
There are two parts to trust: a feeling part that indicates trust and a performa
nce track record that confirms trust.
An active feeling of trust is confidence: in leadership, in veracity, in reliabi
lity. A passive feeling of trust is the absence of worry or suspicion. Our most
productive relationships are already based on trust, sometimes unrecognized and
frequently taken for granted.
Trust, then, can be defined as confidence, the absence of suspicion, confirmed b
y track record and our ability to correct.
The track record is only a confirmation of well-placed trust. If we define trust
solely in terms of past events, we often consign ourselves to long periods of t
esting and sometimes stubborn unforgiveness. It is much more productive to corre
ct mistakes and miscommunications to re-build trust starting now.
Trust
Trust is the antidote to the fears and risks attendant to meaningful commitment.
Trust means confidence in team leadership and vision. When trust prevails, team
members are more willing to go through a difficult process, supported through u
ps, downs, risk and potential loss.
Trust is most efficiently established when leadership commits to vision first, a
nd everyone knows those commitments are genuine. The process for leaders to comm
it is the same as for everyone else: assess pre-commitment doubts, questions, un
knowns and fears. This involves three simple steps:
List the unknowns.
Assess worst case scenarios and their survivability.
Research the unknowns.
The list of unknowns reveals some answers and further questions. Some of these q
uestions lend themselves to research (others' experience, a small pilot plan), a
nd some have no apparent answers from our pre-commitment position. These latter
comprise the bottom line or irreducible risk. We learn the outcome only after co
mmitment. Every major commitment contains some irreducible risk, some lingering
unknowns. We therefore make every major commitment in at least partial ignorance
.
Leadership now understands the potential loss and gain involved in the new visio
n. At this point, leadership can commit itself, and prepare to include other tea
m members. That preparation must include a plan for leadership to share visibly
both risk and reward with the other team members who will be coming on board.
With leadership's commitment to a clear vision, and a genuine plan to share risk
s and rewards, the atmosphere for trust is in place. We are now ready to include
others in our team effort
Trust Starts With You. . .
As a team leader, it is your primary responsibility to surround yourself and you
r team with good people.
If you're trying to build trust, the people you surround yourself with will have
the capacity to trust and be trusted. Obviously these two concepts go hand and
hand (but you'd be surprised to see how often they're overlooked).
A true leader understands their team's ability to perform effectively is affecte
d by situations and dynamics outside the workplace.
The true nature of your employees is paramount to your team's ability to build t
rust and open free-flowing lines of communication.
Some folks will never accept this - these are not the types of people you want o
n your team
Trust building exercises, games and activities help promote a strong bond betwen
team members and co-workers.
Trust is the culmination of good communication and constant maintenance. Relatio
nships are based upon trust and cannot exist without it. Taking the time to prac
tice trust building is not only a good idea, it is absolutely necessary from tim
e to time
Trust Defined
Mutual trust is a shared belief that you can depend on each other to achieve a c
ommon purpose.
More comprehensively trust defined as "the willingness of a party (trustor) to b
e vulnerable to the actions of another party (trustee) based on the expectation
that the trustee will perform an action important to the trustor, regardless of
the trustor's ability to monitor or control the trustee."8
"People sense how you feel about them. If you want to change their attitudes tow
ard you, change the negative attitudes you have toward them." Building relations
hips requires the building of trust. Trust is the expectancy of people that they
can rely on your word. It is built through integrity and consistency in relatio
nships.
Effective Listening: The Bottom Line of Trust
If you listen well people will trust you. "You cannot establish trust if you can
not listen. A conversation is a relationship. Both speaker and listener play a p
art, each influencing the other. Instead of being a passive recipient, the liste
ner has as much to do in shaping the conversation as the speaker"9... More
Managing Cultural Differences
Cultural differences play a key role in the creation of trust, since trust is bu
ilt in different ways, and means different things in different cultures... More
Empathy
In Summary
Trust is the basis for our drive to contribute.The team that competently manages
its members' desire to contribute is already building trust. This involves an i
mproved understanding of ourselves. We must recognize our blind spots in order t
o tip the balance away from fear and toward our vital and vulnerable desire to b
etter things.