5 steps to build trust with your team

Have you ever been in a work environment where you just did not know who you could trust?

It is really unsettling. You find yourself second-guessing every conversation. You worry excessively that you’ll make a mistake and that someone will use it against you. The normal pressure one might feel to meet targets becomes an unbearable band across your chest, squeezing tighter as you dread the reaction from your unpredictable co-workers.

And all of this toxicity impacts your effectiveness. You are completely unable to do your best work, as the creativity that comes from bouncing ideas off other people just cannot happen and you can feel afraid to speak out and suggest solutions.

Why is trust important?

Teams who don’t trust one another, don’t communicate well. They withhold information out of fear or to maintain power. They don’t cooperate or fill in if others let something slip.

An article in the European Journal of Innovation Management found that:

“If managers want to improve employees' innovative behaviour, they should build trust in an organisation, particularly vertical trust and create conditions for knowledge sharing, in particular, knowledge donating. Hence, managers should not only encourage employees to collect the knowledge needed to innovate, but also encourage them to donate knowledge to others.”

Simply put, people who trust one another share information and in doing so, generate creative solutions to problems. If you want to do great work for your clients, then encourage trust amongst your team.

How to build trust

Trust is a vital part of any relationship, and building trust in your workplace will help you create a positive working environment where innovation happens. Here are five ways to foster trust among your employees.

1.    Give regular recognition.

One way to build trust within your team is to recognise them regularly. It goes without saying that everyone likes to have hard work acknowledged.

But in today’s world, it can be almost impossible to acknowledge your team’s accomplishments adequately publicly. In many workplaces, teams rarely gather all together physically. The company may operate a hybrid or flexible working pattern which means the whole team is never together in one place. Other companies do not actually own a building and are fully remote.

Digital platforms can offer a great solution to companies in these situations. Platforms such as our Reward and Recognise give employers a chance to post messages to a virtual noticeboard that highlights team members’ achievements. Other staff can see and respond. They are also able to send rewards for outstanding work. These might be monetary gifts such as vouchers or discount cards, but could also be more practical presents, such as “leave early on Friday”.

In today’s working environment many people are working flexible hours and often check in with emails via their phones throughout the day and into the evening. Employees can download the app to their mobile phones and get access to information easily from wherever they are in the country. Having a Reward and Recognition platform that is as easily accessed sitting on the sofa in the evening as on the morning train ride to the office, makes it possible to connect your whole team throughout the week.

2. Be transparent about your goals.

One of the easiest ways to build trust with your team is by being transparent about your goals.

A team that is directionless and reactionary generates a feeling of instability and chaos. This is not conducive to building trust between the leadership and the team members. Team members can end up feeling like the leadership doesn’t know what they’re doing; that they’re asleep at the helm and headed towards rocks!

Instead, make sure your whole team knows the short, medium and long-term aims for your team. Highlight them regularly, and review whether your activity is aligning with those goals.

A great way to do this is to follow the format of a mission statement. These statements describe the purpose, vision and mission of the business. Here’s what these terms mean:

• Purpose - Why do you exist? (Don’t go for the obvious here, such as “to make money”)
• Vision - What is your long-term goal? What would the future look like for others if you did your job the best way you could?
• Mission - How are you going to achieve your vision? Practically, what would this look like day-to-day?

Using this format, it can be easy to craft a mission statement for any team, no matter the size. This statement can unify the team. You can then bake this into your work culture by Rewarding and Recognising your team in line with these goals.

3. Don’t assign blame.

If something inadvertently goes wrong, own your mistakes or failures.

There is nothing more toxic than encouraging a culture where blame is passed around and everyone points fingers. This completely ruins any team ethos you are developing.

Instead, collectively, as a team, reflect and review. Find out what went wrong and why and figure out what steps need to be taken to prevent future issues.

Bake reflection into your weekly/monthly/quarterly/annual schedule as best fits the work cadence of your industry.

4. Encourage communication

People feel more motivated when they know their ideas and suggestions will be heard.

Encouraging your team to discuss solutions will help people donate information that can raise the game of the whole team. The researchers conducting investigations into the importance of trust in the workplace for the European Journal of Innovation Management found that it is when people donate information to the group that creativity really happens.

So having a democratic, collective approach, where people communicate with their team has the impact of generating more creative solutions and improving productivity.

This could take the form of a weekly meeting, where everyone can pitch in. Or for more hybrid teams try adding a #ideas channel to your digital workplace software, and encouraging employees to brain-dump ideas they’ve had throughout the week.

5. Delegate

It is almost impossible to build trust unless you show that you trust your team in turn. Delegate (wisely!) to team members to demonstrate your trust first. Giving them ownership over a project may improve their productivity and success, as they are able to move the project in the direction they are passionate about.

Obviously, this needs to be done in a way where work can be reviewed, so that those who are not able to work independently can have their work quality assured.

Build trust, improve productivity

We know that when employees trust one another, they communicate better and produce better work. Ultimately, when employees are satisfied, then they stick around for longer, and you can build a more successful business that grows and thrives.

Digital platforms support that goal by helping people feel more recognised for their efforts and more engaged with the company’s goals. When combined with a drive towards developing a work culture of trust, these platforms can be a powerful tool that helps teams create work satisfaction.