Building Trust within Teams

The foundation of high performing teams is the level of trust that has been built within the team. My experience of working with and in teams over a long period of time is that when high levels of trust exist, team usually goes on to succeed. Trust in a team looks something like this:

• When things go wrong or there are issues, then team members readily apologise to each other, especially when they do something damaging to the team.
• Team members openly admit their strengths and weaknesses.
• Members are completely open about themselves and their personal lives. The team share what is happening with each. The team is comfortable about discussing personal issues with each other.
• Members of the team understand the different personalities within the team and modify their communication to get the best out of team interactions.

Trust in teams is about how the vulnerabilities of people within the team are dealt with. Are the members willing to open themselves up to each other, to feel vulnerable and yet safe? It is a strength in a team for weaknesses to be exposed - people admit the truth and thereby don't need to enter the normal world of office politics. Often when working with a team/organisation you see the game of maintaining image. Solutions are only sought that a team knows will not expose them, there is an absence of risk. Individuals don't wish to enter anything that doesn't reflect well on them or their department.

It is hard to expose your vulnerabilities, we are all human and putting ourselves at risk is not natural. Looking after number one is natural, but unhelpful when working in a team. I have seen many teams that have worked with each other for a number of years and yet they stay stuck with the wasted energy maintaining the polite and debilitating game of keeping up appearances. There is little trust between people and no one talking about the issues that affect performance.

What builds trust in a team? As with so much, it begins with the leader.

Here are our proven methods and top tips:

1. Allow people to rake risks where there is no guarantee of success.
2. Giving up control and delegating greater responsibilities - takes courage and shows trust
3. Make your intentions explicit and clear - both regarding tasks and personal.
4. At your next team meeting, kick-off with sharing personal histories:
   - Where they grew up
   - How many siblings they have and where they fall in sibling order
   - What did their school report typically say about them
   - What was the most difficult or important challenge of
   their childhood
   - Then ask what they learned about one another that they didn't know.
5. Use a personality indicator such as Myers Briggs (MBTI) to help members understand individual strengths and weaknesses.

At MVR we use MBTI extensively to help teams improve performance. We run a number of different MBTI team events:

• Providing a fun overview of the results and using simple exercises to highlight differences in personality.
• Sharing the results of team members and helping work with the team to understand the impact.
• MBTI Team Olympics - a full day event that links fun activities to MBTI and needs minimum of 18 people [Click Here for more details]

MBTI is one of a large range of tools and techniques to help you develop your team. Our teambuilding events, whilst fun and innovative, are designed to help teams maximise their performance. If you would like more information on our teambuilding events - click here.

November 2005