Ways To Build Trust with Your Distributed (Virtual) Team

1. Are you an executive with teams in different geographies?
2. Do you have team members who sit near you and far away from you?
3. Do you manage a partial or fully remote team?
4. Are you responsible for a project team operating in various time zones?

If you answer yes to any of the above questions, you’re managing teams virtually.

As leaders, we may agree that trust is the foundation for effective teams. Now, researchers have found trust to be even more important in virtual teams by highlighting the correlation between trust and high virtual team performance.

“Teams with high degrees of trust are more proactive, more focused on task output, more optimistic, more frequently initiate interactions, and provide more substantive, productive feedback.” — Clark, Clark, & Crossley, 2010.

The Workplace Is a Mix of Teams in Various Locations

The change in the workplace continues to stretch how I operate as a leader. Since 2008, I have managed teams across different time zones. Regardless of whether we were in different cities, countries, or continents, my way of management was the same.

I now see that establishing trust is harder when there’s less face time. This awareness led me to look for new ways of leading teams in various offices.

Employees Say Their Most Influential Leader Established Trust

Over 10,000 people in a remote manager/employee study by Gallup were asked to share one word that describes the most influential leader in their life.

Trust emerged.

“Trust in the workplace increases speed and efficiency and, ultimately, performance. When people tell Gallup about the leaders who had a positive effect on them, it’s clear that these leaders were trustworthy.” — Gallup article

I’m convinced that trust is necessary to operate at high levels of work potential. So now I have to look at the qualities that build trustworthiness.

The Challenge Is to Form Trust Among Teams Connected Only by Technology

“Trust is “hot.” Today, more than ever, it’s increasingly recognized as an essential asset to break down silos, foster collaboration, deepen teamwork, drive engagement, and manage the never-ending process of change.” — Reina Trust Building

This wheel illustrates how we can think about the ways managers can create and destroy trust with their teams. It’s the way we set the tone for working together, how we share information, and how we enable our teams to continue learning their craft.

Trust of character

Trust of character describes how a manager sets expectations for themselves and their teams. The challenge for virtual leaders is to show consistency through communication.

The simple act of showing up to work each day is completely lost on a virtual team member who does not physically see us. This means leaders must look at more creative ways to show their character with team members who don’t sit in the same location.

Trust of communication

How a manager delivers information, with or without transparency, impacts the trust level their teams feel. The way information is delivered is referred to as the trust of communication.

The challenge for virtual leaders is to speak and write honestly. Communicating regularly is a known challenge for virtual leaders and virtual teams, and this contributes to the length of time it takes for trust to be developed.

Trust of capability

How a manager delegates shows their trust level in their team’s knowledge and experience. Some virtual teams feel they only get work that is task-based, instead of problem-solving based.

Virtual leaders have the challenge of using communication that is primarily technology based to enable their teams to flex and develop their skills.

Cloud applications now enable live conversations, knowledge sharing, and decision making among distributed teams. Communication delays due to technology limitations for companies with different offices have been resolved. But there’s a new problem — How to build leadership trustworthiness. Companies and managers with segregated teams need to figure out how to form trusting relationships when web technology is their primary communication tool.

Ways to Delay or Lose Leadership Trustworthiness Among Virtual Teams

“While the technology is the hardware of creating virtual trust, the actions (or lack of actions) of the parties in virtual teams are the software that builds and sustains the needed trust.” — Ford et al., 2017.

Not communicating or allowing time to talk with teams is a guaranteed way to lose credibility. Here are some actions that may create distrust:

Rarely talking with team members

What this looks like: One or two planned meetings a month that sometimes get postponed. Managers have more opportunities to talk with team members who work in the same location. Because they talk more, they have stronger relationships and because of that they talk and share more. The remote team member is at a disadvantage.

Too busy to discuss ideas

What this looks like: A rush from meeting to meeting, with only enough time to catch up on project status and give new direction. A break in technology connection so the meeting is cancelled or delayed without rescheduling.

Without time to talk, there are less opportunities to form strong manager-employee relationships. This can increase the time it takes for trust to form. .

Not enough time to answer questions

What this looks like: Messages are about giving new direction without explanation. Teams resort to developing their own answers when there is little time for questions and answers. Less time with managers about lingering questions can lead to a disconnected feeling. The result is a team unequipped to make decisions in the best interest of their workplace.

Ways to Build or Enhance Trust Among Virtual Teams

When we have more face-to-face time, trust is built faster and teams work more effectively together. Leaders with teams in various locations have a responsibility to design a trusting environment.

Reflecting on some of the best leaders I came to trust, here are some of their methods:

Meet virtually to converse about work and personal life

Create a regular cadence of discussing work and personal topics. The individual and leader need to learn about each other professionally and personally. Work knowledge and experience is what I look for in a leader. While I want to work with a personable leader, I also want to learn from a manager by hearing and seeing their skills in action.

Create conversations = Trust of character

Leaders who lean towards only talking about non-work related things build friendships — they don’t necessarily gain professional respect. Leaders who lean towards only talking work show experience that turns into respect. The downside is that they appear impersonal.

Create a balance between work related and personal discussions to become likeable and respected. Use video or 1:1 meetings in person for work-related discussions. Then use instant messaging tools for informal conversations. Choosing the right medium for the message is a virtual leader’s responsibility.

Discuss ideas through talking and writing

Use the common approach for generating ideas from everyone. This approach is to write it down first to allow time for everyone to put forward suggestions. Write down suggestions before volunteering them. This technique is especially good for virtual teams where technology can negatively impact team collaboration. It’s also inclusive in encouraging all team members to contribute.

The manager delivers the problem statement at the start of the meeting. Team members in any location have 10 minutes to come up with solution ideas by writing them down. After the 10 minutes, the manager can build team engagement by:

1. Asking for volunteers to share an idea.
2. Asking for team members who had a similar idea to add to the discussion.

Encourage contribution = Trust of capability

At the end of the session, the manager can collect everyone’s written ideas, which could be summarized for a later discussion. It allows team members at any location to actively participate. It also visibly shows similarities in thoughts between members in the group. Demonstrating similarities among work associates creates the foundation for trust.

Set aside time for questions and use a shared collaboration tool

Create a specific agenda in a meeting or a group chat for questions using an online document collaboration tool.

Team members can raise concerns about the clarity of a message by asking for more information. A designated time for a manager to listen to questions lets team members in any location know that there is an opportunity to learn more about a new plan or business objective.

This practice has been established by leaders at my workplace. We generate a list of questions about a new project in a shared document. We all add to it at our convenience. Then the discussion leader provides responses, which demonstrate transparency. It’s a great way for everyone sitting in different offices to have a common view.

Show transparency = Trust of communication

Trust is developed when each leader shows that they value setting time aside for others to ask questions. As a bonus, team members see the similarities in the questions and receive the same responses without the need to get together in a meeting.

Recap on the Responsibility of the Virtual Leader to Form Trust

Those of us with responsibilities of managing team members separated by a sizeable distance are called virtual leaders. Where face-to-face interactions are limited, we may find it more difficult to form trusting work relationships, or it may take longer. Until trust is established, our teams may not operate at a high level of performance.

Regardless of where they are, leaders can enable their teams to be proactive, get work done, act positively, and give relevant feedback.

The way toward achievement is:

• Demonstrate character by consistently chatting through video calls and chats.
• Enable new skill development by soliciting and finding common ideas in writing.
• Make information accessible to all, by soliciting questions and sharing answers.

Trust is the foundation for teams to solve problems and achieve common goals. Dedicating time to communicate often, encourage new ideas, and clarify ambiguity, is critical for today’s distributed workplace managers.