Want To Build Trust? Talk Less About It. (+ PDF Tool)

Hi friends,

Do you trust your teammates?

The question begs more clarity: “Depends what you mean by ‘trust’...?”

And it’s a good one. While you don’t need to be able to trust a teammate with your life savings, teams do require a certain type of trust to perform at their best.

Last week, I designed a Team Tetreat based on Lencioni’s Five (dis)functions of a team. This model outlines the most common obstacles that prevent teams from realizing their full potential:

1. Absence of Trust: When team members don't feel comfortable being vulnerable with each other, which leads to a culture of fear and self-preservation.
2. Fear of Conflict: When a team makes lower-quality decisions because its members don’t engage in constructive debate and conflict.
3. Lack of Commitment: When team members fail to participate in decision-making and feel as though their opinions count, resulting in less commitment to the team’s goals.
4. Avoidance of Accountability: When team members are not made responsible for their actions, and which can result in inadequate execution and a lack of confidence.
5. Inattention to Results: When team members prioritize individual goals over team goals, causing the whole team to suffer.

Take a look below: 

What Does It Look Like?

The kind of trust I’m referring to is the ability to be vulnerable. I’ve learned that you can talk about the concept all day in a workshop, but teams will still struggle to realize it in practice. 

The best way to understand it is by doing. 

“Doing Trust” and “doing Conflict” means opening up about your fears on critical business topics. And that’s exactly what last week’s brave team members did.

It felt…different, according to participants.

I won’t dive into what members discussed, but the following are a few self-disclosure questions designed to practice showing vulnerability in therapy. 

Translate them into a business context, imagine answering these for a teammate, and you’ll get a sense of how it feels:

• What worries you most at the moment?
• When was the last time you felt like everything was out of control?
• What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken, and did it turn out as you had expected?

Making yourself vulnerable is an emotional experience, which is why it’s so powerful to “do.” You can’t hide or fake your emotional side once it’s accessed; it triggers others’ “bullsh** radar,” whether they realize they aren’t trusting you or not. 

How Fast Can Teams Build Trust?

Trust only takes a long time to build when we’re *only* talking about it—talking and not doing is ineffective.

We’re often told that trust takes a long time to build. 

And we talk about trust often enough. 

But it only takes a long time to build when we’re *only* talking about trust—talking and not doing is ineffective. “Do trust” more (or at least practice it), and you will find it can be created much faster.

That’s when things really start coming together.

• When you take the risk of being ‘burned,’ when you step forward, lean in, and show yourself…
• The other person will feel your authenticity.
• That authenticity is an invitation to reciprocate, and 
• That builds trust faster than any talking ever will.

It takes courage, I’ll admit.

How Does It Impact Team Performance?

Trust is the foundation of Lencioni’s Pyramid. When you can show vulnerability about critical business topics, you create psychological safety in your team. 

Healthy conflict thrives in psychologically safe cultures, which leads to more contribution and goal commitment from everyone involved. Committed co-workers take accountability for their actions, which means more focus and investment in results.

It’s not unrelated to Stephen Covey’s “Speed of Trust” concept, which describes how communication, decision-making, and execution are faster in high-trust teams.

Over To You

So do you think you could “do trust” yourself? 

The best thing you can do is practice, and don’t expect things to go flawlessly at first. 

I personally designed a Team Exercise to help you: click here to download it for free.

This PDF shows you how to put Lencioni’s concept of “vulnerable trust” into play by opening up with all the members of your team.

Showing vulnerability, being (deeply) authentic, and nurturing reciprocity are skills very much like ‘muscles’ that need constant training. Train together with your team—train often—and you’ll start to see undeniable results.

Trust me! ??

— Govert

P.S. And remember, showing your vulnerability during a team retreat is one thing: “doing trust” can be a lot harder when the stakes are high. Try the exercise I created and see for yourself!

P.P.S You can get the remaining @timetogrowglobal 20th Anniversary gifts in your inbox directly by clicking here.