Six ways to build trust on the fly

Trust is at the basis of any high performing team.  It can be built incrementally, over time, and often by small gestures.  Trust is a belief that something vulnerable and important to me is safe with you. That “something” could be my thoughts and ideas, my project, my feelings, my reputation, or anything that makes me uncomfortable when leaving it at risk to your decisions and actions.

Trust building starts with having the right leadership mindset.  As leaders, we need to firmly hold the belief that people are capable, trustworthy and have unlimited potential.  This is a mindset of generosity – having the most generous interpretation as possible to the intentions of others.  This belief provides courage that is sometimes needed to foster an environment where trust amongst our team can grow. When we work with a team, we start the day with a trust building exercise crafted to go beyond the traditional ice breaker. Genuine connection and understanding are the foundation for trusting environments.

Some ways of building trust take time to allow for people to notice trusted behavior patterns.  We can earn trust over time by being reliable, consistent, competent and managing critical information in confidence, but this takes time. Most teams can’t take the time to build trust before getting on to doing work together. You have to build trust on the fly just like flying the plane while you build it. Teams are fluid.  Members change over time, ongoing projects and strategic initiatives are started, and managing day to day firefighting makes the luxury of building trust before anything else a fantasy.

Trust is often unintentionally eroded when significant events happen in teams such as a change of a team member, a new CEO, or a major shift in direction.  When this happens its helpful to be able to accelerate the trust building process while continuing with business as usual.

Here are 6 ways to build trust on the fly.  Be prepared, all of them take some courage and vulnerability.

1.      Deepen interpersonal relationships – Get to know each other on a more personal level.   We have found that sharing an exciting moment from our childhood or other life stories lets people in on what has shaped you.  It’s incredible how much we learn in a short story to understand each other’s style, our passions, values and what has shaped us.  Sharing food creates another level of interpersonal magic. Going for coffee, lunch, dinner are great opportunities to build more personal and trusting relationships.  Showing you genuinely care about others and form warm and caring relationships builds trust fast.

2.     Focus on outcomes – Environments where there is drama or sometimes gossip erode trust.  These are environments where the focus is oriented towards a problem, who is popular, who is right, who is going to win.  Instead, put your focus and talk about the outcome you want rather than the problem you don’t want. Focusing on outcomes starts to set expectations that help everyone avoid misunderstandings and builds a foundation of trust.  Be decisive on the outcomes you want and share what you want with others.

3.     Acknowledge and appreciate - the people around you.  Acknowledgement lets people understand how you think and what you value. It builds an environment for people to take the right risks. Appreciation of another person’s thoughts, feelings and actions generates trust and does not necessarily mean you agree – just that you acknowledge their perspective as being valuable.

4.     Demonstrate an active interest in learning.  There are lots of approaches you can take here.  Admit mistakes and take responsibility for them.  Share successes and failures. Nobody is perfect. People tend to trust those who are willing to admit when they're wrong and learn from their errors. Actively giving and seeking honest feedback develops a climate of trust. Forgiving others also demonstrates your trusting mindset and belief in learning for the future by giving others permission to learn and do better when they know better.

5.     Delegate. Empower others to make their own decisions and share leadership even if it requires some courage to push through discomfort. When people have autonomy they feel trusted and trust you in return.  When you set the right boundaries people know where they stand and trust develops.

6.     Walk your talk Integrity and authenticity are what people trust the most.  To be effective leaders, it’s not enough for you to be committed to your values – you also need to communicate and let people know what you stand for, how you think, and your intentions.  Integrity happens when your behavior matches your values so that others trust you can be counted on to keep your word, meet your commitments, deal with them honestly and fairly, and remain true to your purpose.  You can erode your integrity by having favorites or promoting people based on who you like rather than the principles you stand for.  Integrity is the source of your power.

We often focus on developing trust with people around us and in our teams to the point where we forget about our self-trust.  Self-trust allows us to be effective leaders by demonstrating trust and leading by example.  Take some time to notice your mindset around trust – are you keeping a mindset that you are capable, trustworthy and have unlimited potential?  Doing so will give you the courage to take the courageous steps to build trust throughout your organization.

If you want to level up your team’s performance, deepening trust will create an even stronger foundation for team engagement and results. A solid foundation of trust ensures your team can engage in healthy conflict around ideas, get to clear decisions and buy-in on next steps, create high accountability and out perform when it comes to organizational results. Start with trusting yourself to experiment courageously with a new trust building strategy.