What does “trust” mean to you? When I say that employees, teammates, and colleagues need to trust each other, what comes to mind?
You may think, “Yes, I trust that my direct reports are going to show up on time, ready to work their shift.” Or perhaps, “I trust Bob. I know that if he says he’ll have the weekly stats to me by noon, he’ll do it.”
Trust is a key element of high-performing organizations. Employees in high-trust companies are more productive, more satisfied with their jobs, put in greater effort, are less likely to search for new jobs, and are even healthier than people working in low-trust companies.
So, What Is Trust?
Trust is a complex set of social behaviors, expectations, norms, and interpersonal actions. And there are two kinds of trust. The first kind, as in my examples above, is the kind where we put ourselves in another’s shoes and think, “If I were her, I’d do xyz.” Combined with experience of people’s behavior, we can forecast their actions. This is predictive trust.
The second kind of trust is based in empathy, and, believe it or not, the release in our brains of the neurochemical oxytocin. Oxytocin reduces the anxiety we naturally have when around other people, and motivates us to cooperate with and help each other. This is vulnerability-based trust, and it’s critical to effective teamwork. I’ll come back to this in a moment, but first, let’s look a little closer at the effect of trust on companies.
Why Does Trust Matter?
Trust, among team members, as part of organizational culture, and even with customers, leads to improved morale, increased employee retention, increased performance, less stress, and higher profits.
Creating trust lifts business performance in general. In a 1999 study of Holiday Inns (https://hbr.org/2002/09/the-high-cost-of-lost-trust), 6,500 employees rated their trust in their managers on a scale of 1 to 5. The researchers found that a one-eighth point improvement in scores could be expected to increase an inn’s annual profits by 2.5% of revenues, or $250,000 more per hotel. No other aspect of managers’ behavior had such a large impact on profits.
If you look at this the other way around, 70% of employees are “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” at work. This makes them “less emotionally connected” and “less likely to be productive.”
Building vulnerability-based trust can change those statistics.
Call it “Essential” Not “Soft” Skills
Brené Brown conducted thousands of interviews to discover what lies at the root of social connection. A thorough analysis of the data revealed that it’s vulnerability. Vulnerability here does not mean being weak or submissive. Rather, it implies the courage to be yourself. It means replacing what we think of as a professional distance or coolness with genuineness and a willingness to act in ways that present uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. Opportunities for vulnerability present themselves to us at work every day.
Patrick Lencioni’s examples of vulnerabilities include:
- Weaknesses – admitting them and asking for support from those whose skills are stronger
- Skill deficiencies
- Interpersonal shortcomings – do you have a particular behavior that gets in the way of communication or good relationships?
- Mistakes – failures are better acknowledged and shared with teammates who can help figure out what went wrong and how to fix it next time.
- Requests for help – people like being asked for help; it gives them a chance to feel valued.
“Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.” — Brené Brown
When trust is present team members:
- Are willing to be completely vulnerable with one another.
- Have confidence that their peers’ intentions are good and there is no reason to be protective or careful around the team.
- Acknowledge their weaknesses to one another.
- Willingly apologize to one another.
- Are unguarded and genuine with one another.
- Ask one another for input regarding their areas of responsibility.
Building Trust on a Team
Let’s look closer at four behaviors, based in being genuine and vulnerable, that are key to building trust.
- Team members acknowledge their weaknesses to one another.
Members of great teams don’t waste time and energy putting on airs or pretending to be someone they’re not. Everyone on the team knows that no one is going to hide his or her weaknesses, which helps build a deep sense of trust. - Team members willingly apologize to one another.
When teams are completely comfortable saying things like “I screwed up” or “Your idea was better than mine,” they are practicing being vulnerable. Trust will greatly improve when members are able to set egos aside and move forward. - Team members are unguarded and genuine with one another.
At the heart of vulnerability lies the willingness to people to abandon their pride and their fear and simply be themselves. While this can a little threatening and uncomfortable at first, ultimately it becomes liberating for people who are tired of over-thinking their actions and interpersonal politics at work. - Team members ask one another for input regarding their areas of responsibility.
When people trust that their team members have their best interests in mind, they feel comfortable asking one another for input and opinions. They aren’t worried about being exposed or shot down.
From Brené Brown, again: “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.”
If your goal is to increase vulnerability-based trust in your workplace and life, consider these ten tips:
- Reduce the amount of gossip and talking about one another other behind their backs
- Admit when you are wrong, make mistakes and readily apologize
- Let go of holding grudges from the past
- Understand and appreciate one another’s work styles and strengths
- Be open and practice information sharing
- Take time to learn about each other on a more personal level
- Looks for ways to give credit to others
- Acknowledge and celebrate successes of others
- Share openly both your failures and successes
- Give your team members the benefit of the doubt before jumping to a negative conclusion
Ready to take the next step?
Download my Team Trust Activity. It includes a short survey for all team members, and some suggestions for discussion topics, plus a “cheat sheet” on how the four DiSC styles approach trust.