What are 10 ways that you can build the trust and confidence of colleagues?

Trust is the foundation for building strong teams, creating a positive work culture, and producing results. The cost of not having trust in the workplace or a culture of trust is also greater than you may be aware of. Fast Company shared a story about a Fortune 500 company who realized it took an average of 89 weeks to execute change within their company, and 39 of those weeks were a direct result of mistrust.

Have you ever worked in an environment where trust didn’t exist? You most likely experienced a workplace where people were unreliable, inadequate, disloyal, uncommunicative, and inconsistent in their work and their moods. It’s what I call a low-trust workplace, and it can create a highly stressful and undesirable environment for everyone. However, when trust is present, people start to take ownership of their responsibilities, help one another out, speak highly of one another, communicate more often, and tend to be more productive. Trust provides a safe place for people to share their struggles and dreams and reach their potential individually and as a team. So how can you, as the leader, build a high-trust workplace? In this post I’ll share the five elements of trust so you can raise the morale of your team.

First, let me share with you a couple of statistics you should know about trust within organizations. According to the new Edelman "Trust Barometer" (a survey of 33,000 people in 28 countries), one in three people don’t trust their employer. They also discovered that trust decreases from top positions to the lowest. For instance, 64 percent of executives trust their organizations, while only 51 percent of managers and 48 percent of other staff stated they trust their organizations. Employees remarked that they trust their peers more than the CEO and upper-level executives of their company. That means the higher up you go, the more critical it is for you to build trust with those beneath you. Building trust starts with leaders.

5 Questions That Determine If You’re a Trustworthy Leader

2. Would most people describe you as someone who is reliable?

3. Is there a high amount of gossip and disrespect among your team?

4. Do the majority of team members underperform at the tasks you ask them to do?

5. Do you trust people to take on new responsibilities?

If the answer questions one, three, and four are yes, and two and five are no, there is work to be done. Start improving by learning these five elements of trust.

The 5 Elements of TRUST

Be transparent by giving constructive criticism and positive feedback often, so people understand where you’re coming from and what your expectations are. You can also be transparent by admitting mistakes and being vulnerable with others. This shows that you’re not perfect either, and it’s a great way to show people that they can trust you. By being an example for your team, they will learn to be more transparent with you and one another.

Respect (R) everyone. Respect your employee’s time, their opinions, and their ideas. If you say your meeting is at 9 a.m., don’t show up at 9:15. If you say you have an open-door policy, don’t shut the door just because you don’t agree with someone’s perception. Remember, great leaders are great listeners. Showing respect doesn’t mean you have to agree with everyone, but when you honor their feelings, it builds trust, and they feel safe to open up more often. Respect is simply the Golden Rule in action: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Unite (U) your team. The first step here is to let people know that you will not tolerate cliques and gossip amongst your team. Gossip is like cancer; it kills team morale. Trust, however, is the cure. The second step is to have them work toward one vision. Give them a group project they have to complete by working together. If they fail, they all reap the consequences, and if they succeed, they all receive the reward. The team that struggles together and succeeds together is a team that unites.

Show (S) them you care. As leadership expert John C. Maxwell said, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Trust is built when someone sees that you truly value them as a person and not just as an employee. In my audiobook, The TRIUMPH Method, I walk you through the top five things employees need to have job satisfaction—being valued is number 1 on that list. You can show people you value them by learning more about them personally, praising them daily, and asking for their input more often. When people feel valued, you do more than earn their trust…you earn their loyalty as well.

Trust-Building Activities (T) build morale. It’s been proven that when someone enjoys the people they work with, they’re happier and are more productive—and that doesn’t happen by accident. One of the ways to raise morale and build trust at the same time is to provide activities focused on building trust in teams. When I conducted a training for Princess Cruises, I included a few trust exercises. One was the “Index Card Game,” in which everyone had to write down something positive they thought their fellow employees brought to the team. When we finished, each team member walked away with an index card full of compliments they never knew their co-workers thought about them. The team said that one activity brought them closer than they’ve ever been.

When comparing a high-trust to a low-trust work environment, the five elements of TRUST will either be present or missing from the leader. My challenge to you is to make an effort every day on building one of the five elements of TRUST. Today, work on being transparent; tomorrow, work on showing others respect, and so on. Keep going until you’ve built a high-trust work environment and more respect in the workplace.

Check out similar articles: Mutual Respect Is the Foundation for Your Team’s Extreme Performance

This post was originally published in May 2018 and was updated with recent research and resources.

There is nothing wrong is saying that trust is the primary ingredient of any kind of relationship.

The importance of trust can be understood by its definition only. Trust means to rely on someone else to do the right thing.

The position of a manager comes with a new office, new staff, new ideas, new personalities and new responsibilities.

Someone once said, ‘Workers don’t quit their jobs, they quit their bosses.’ This statement is true to a great extent and it takes trust to keep the whole team together.

You might hear a number of people complaining about their bosses every single day. Trust is something that can’t come directly to you. You can’t make anyone trust you; it has to be earned.

Managing a team of people who don’t trust each-other is the absolute nightmare for any manager.

Here Are the Top 10 Effective Ways to Build Trust Within Your Team

1. Open Up

It is important to expose yourself to your team.

Exposing doesn’t mean spilling your secrets to let them take advantage of you, but to make them feel that you are nothing different from the rest of your team.

You should have the guts to admit your failures and demonstrate your thoughts without any hindrance.

2. Create The Circle Of Safety

The whole motive of building trust within the team is to keep the information safe in order to get desired results in the end.

Treat your people like ‘human beings’ and give them a sense of security, belonging, an ultimate purpose and proper care.

The first step to trust is care; the team needs to feel cared to trust you.

3. Listen Before Speaking

Always listen to the views of others with a motive to understand rather than just to reply.

You should be of understanding nature at first place, if you want the team to understand you. Be a calm listener and consider other’s ideas before making the final decision. Moreover, always do what you promised otherwise they won’t be able to trust you to lead.

4. Lead The Team By Example

In most of the offices, the team members are always keeping an eye of your actions and taking cues from you. If you want your team to arrive on time, make sure to be in office on time first.

Leading by example simply means that you have a good character and workers are often more inclined to trust a manager with good character record.

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5. Support Your Staff

Treat the staff under you like they are the key parts of your organization. The vital factor to build employee engagement and trust is to show them support.

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Always be the first to back up your staff in case they have been falsely accused. These little actions will help in doubling trust.

6. Respect Your Employees
Respecting each and every person on your team is important step towards gaining the trust of your team. Just like the saying, ‘Treat others how you want to be treated.’ How can you expect trust and respect from others if you don’t practice it yourselves? No worker is going to trust you until you earn their respect.

7. Take The Hit

Make sure to take the blame, being their leader, when an undesirable outcome happens.

Being a leader, it becomes your duty to take the blame for the good of the whole team even if it’s not your fault directly.

Take responsibility of every good and bad action and your team will start trusting you.

8. Accept Disagreement

Accepting a false agreement is just as bad as fighting. An open discussion is the best way to solve a problem when differences in opinions arise. Explore new ways with an intention to solve the problems.

The presence of disagreements means the team trusts you enough and is not afraid to tell you the truth.

9. Value Every Team Member

Every person has unique strengths and weaknesses.

Find the unique strengths of every team member and use those skills for the good of your organization. Give them freedom to explore new ideas and show their creative side. Give them opportunities to learn something from every failure.

10. Praise Others

Every member of your team want to matter and you might help them in feeling important by kind words of appreciation.

Appreciating and valuing another person helps in building trust at a quick pace. Keep in mind that no one ever created a win-win relationship without letting the other person win first.

Image source – DepositPhotos

About the Author
Lisa Smith is a designer by profession, has love for creativity, and enjoys writing articles for almost all topics. Also, she is a regular contributor to successstory.com where you can find her favorite topics related to Career, Web, Social Media and Self Improvement.

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