Trust - 'Speed Booster' for your team

In the past few weeks, I have sat in a few stakeholder communications (comms.) meeting. For those that don't know, these meetings discuss strategies on how to communicate with a stakeholder to achieve a certain outcome.

On one such occasion, the comms. manager spent 20 mins walking through the approach to gather information from a colleague within the same team. This led me to ask the question "Why Am I Here?!!". Why did we need a whole meeting to discuss how to communicate with a team member? Why couldn't we just ask talk to them?

Then it dawned on me, there was no trust built and we were paying for it with our time.

Have you ever experienced this before? Have you ever had a team member where you would map out entire scenarios of a conversation before you uttered a word? Have you ever worked with a team where you weren't sure you trusted in people's abilities or vice versa it felt like no-one trusted yours?

These likely stem from a lack of trust and you lose a lot of time working around this. Remember, you can never make time back.

Could your team be working to developing more creative outcomes and solve more problems? Could you spend time to deliver more value or design work more efficiently? If these are too much, couldn't you be watching Netflix? Why not right???

It will definitely take time to build trust but trust that it will be a great time saver in the future. Your team will have more energy, the dynamic will be stronger and more open. Teams will creatively challenge each other to progress and build new ideas on top of each other.

So how do we go about doing this?

1.  Are you worth trusting? To build a trusted team, you may have to look to yourself first. This is important whether you are a titled leader or not as you can set a tone or an example for your team. Are your words aligned with you actions? Do you deliver on promises? Do you exemplify integrity? Before you can expect others to trust you or each other, you need to show the right example.
2. Are you all aligned to a similar purpose? A team is defined by its purpose. When a team knows its purpose, it will work in tandem to overcome challenges and build trust to execute this purpose. Purpose can manifest as goals or it can develop as a culture or shared beliefs. Whatever form it takes, the stronger this purpose, the more trust is built and faster your team will work together.
3. Are you creating the right environment for trust to be built? Cyclists have a concept called 'co-operative drafting'. This is when a lead rider creates a 'slipstream' for the team to follow. This is very tough for the lead rider and the team rotates the lead to keep the momentum going. Similarly, are you creating an environment where each team member is working in tandem with each other? Are different team members leading and following where appropriate? Is the environment a positive momentum where all team members progress?

These are just 3 thoughts to consider when building trust.

Is trust important for you and your team? When have you had to build trust within your organisation and what were your principles or approaches to do this? Would love to hear from you.