Team Development by Building Trust

As your team begins to work together, you need to establish a way each team member can exchange ideas and build mutual trust. Successful groups are built on trust and collaboration. A free exchange of ideas, in an open environment, will allow your team to get to know each other and enable you to check on how they work together. Learn some tips to help build team trust and establish personal bonds.

Setting up a series of informal meetings, early on in your project, offers an ideal opportunity for team member exploration. Like other teams, your people will also most likely progress through several predictable stages of team formation and help them bond with each other, as they move from being strangers to form a cohesive team. Use this time to discuss your project, delegate particular tasks, set individual roles, and discuss objectives. Always make sure that everyone involved understands every stage of their involvement.

Use the following six-step approach to cultivate an environment of trust within your team:

1. Trust Your People

Employees will never work to their full potential if they don't feel trusted by management. Trust the intentions of your people to do the right thing. Employees who do feel trusted are higher performers and exert extra effort, going above and beyond role expectations. Trust they want to make the right decision, and make choices that, to the best of their understanding are the best and, still might work. Trusted employees feel more valued, which will help to make them feel more engaged in their work.

2. Reward Desired Behavior

Reward desired behavior by letting your team know that they will be rewarded for a job well done and supported if they run into difficulties. Make sure your team feels valued. Interact frequently and give yourself opportunities to let your team know a job is being done well. Or they will be supported and guided to do the course correct if necessary. With positive reinforcement, you add a positive reward when a person is showing desired behavior. As a team member ensure to be trustworthy and establish your credibility. Be reliable. Always try to accomplish what you say, do it on time, and without any excuses.

3. Learn from Mistakes

Generally, we all start our careers being a member of a work team, and gradually may find ourselves in a team leader role, at some point in our career. Learn from mistakes and let people learn from their mistakes. Establish a culture where people who take action and make a mistake will be viewed positively in your empowered organization. Punished learners do not learn the new skill; instead, they learn to avoid the person who punished them by taking fewer risks. Mistakes help people learn to become empowered

4. Empower & Delegate:

Most of the organizations today we work for have certainly changed from the previous traditional ways of working (such as hierarchical based organizations or functionally driven organizations) to matrix-based organizations where the relevance of team-based approaches have gained even more importance. The biggest challenge that leaders face while working with such structures is, how do they as team leaders ensure the empowerment of employees and start sharing their leadership responsibilities with the team members to maximize creativity and productivity. Delegation and trusting someone to do a job are also empowered. Demonstrate trust in others so there is a foundation for them to trust you. Always remember trust goes both ways.

5. Establish Accountability:

Once you have empowered people hold others accountable and set the expectations as early as possible. Demonstrate accountability in all your actions. Remember there is no true glory without accountability. Take the opportunity to clarify the behaviors expected of each team member. Use your Team Charter to build an understanding of team objectives. Each person should clearly understand the goals of the group and should know how these fit with your organization's overall objectives. Establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) linking your team's tasks to your organization's goal and objectives and use these indicators to start managing performance. Team members should be clear about the definitions of these KPIs and must understand how they affect them directly so that they understand their deliverables and how they will be measured. Provide all the needed materials and equipment to do the job effectively.

6. Provide Timely Feedback:

One of the most important roles that you have as a team manager is that of keeping individuals motivated and energized to keep working for organizational goals. Regular feedback helps employees efficiently direct their attention and energies, helps them avoid major errors and dead ends, and keeps them from learning things they later will have to unlearn at great cost. Try to tailor your efforts based on the different needs of each individual (refer to the Situational Leadership Model). Building effective teams is a continuous process – keep revisiting each step of this process on a regular basis.