Trust is the foundation of all relationships. Without building trust, you can’t build rapport, and you certainly can’t inspire, motivate, and lead a team effectively well long-term. To develop trust, a leader needs to demonstrate that they have the competence, the right systems and processes to make people feel safe and trusting.
Need to Know Leading Doesn’t Work
A mistake that many leaders make early on in their career is establishing a culture of treating employees with a ‘need to know’ approach, which signals distrust by limiting access to information. Some leaders do this out of the fear of being perceived as not ‘in charge.’ These leaders prefer all communication (good or bad) to flow through them instead of sharing that responsibility with others. By taking more of a ‘need to share’ approach, in being more open and transparent, it can build trust by providing everyone with access to information without putting up roadblocks. In my experience, it’s often better to over-share and communicate to foster trust and a culture of being open with team members.
Trust Is Like Going to the Bank
I once had a senior leader told me that trust is like going to the bank. Through your consistent actions, you are putting deposits in the trust bank while building more significant relationships with people. If you break someone’s trust, it doesn’t take too long for those deposits to become withdrawals and disappear quickly. Before you know it, all the trust is gone. It’s easy to spend and hard to save or regain if you have lost someone’s trust. It’s essential to focus on always earning interest and building trust in your relationships with everyone. Through the right actions, the deposits you make will cause the trust to grow.
Growing Trust
A crucial part of building more trust amongst the team is having a leader confident enough to be vulnerable, admitting challenges, mistakes, or issues. Nothing ever goes perfectly, and teams see through all the fluff and, ultimately, want someone real with them. By being vulnerable and sharing, trust is more apt to develop. When there are issues, they are more likely to confide in you instead of working around you too. So, if you want to build trust, be real with your team, and they will be real with you also.
Facilitate Trust With Your Team
- Behave predictably and consistently
- Communicate candidly and be transparent
- Do what you say you will do
- Foster a culture of sharing
- Trust is everything. It’s the cornerstone of all relationships and leadership.
Building Rapport
All relationships start and end with trust. To solidify the trust you have with your team, you need to find a way to build rapport. Consider some guidelines for building rapport with and supporting your team:
- Take time with employees
- Coach them by asking employees what they want and need
- Be available for questions from employees
- Show understanding and empathy
- Support employees when they make mistakes
Getting to know employees personally and asking for their input, help, and ideas is a great starting point for any leader. Everyone has an opinion. The more you can consider the different perspectives of those you work with, the less likely you will meet resistance. If so, that’s fine too, because you should realize that you don’t have all the answers or the most fabulous ideas.
Two or more people working together are better than one. Build rapport and trust with all your actions and communications consistently. Over time, you will have a good deposit built up.
