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Michelle Reina

When something goes seriously wrong, it’s often announced by subtle signals.The two of us are living proof of how important it is to listen and act on those signals. At different points, we each found ourselves feeling a little bit off physically—nothing specific, just a sense that we weren’t up to speed. After diagnostic tests, we heard the same diagnosis: “You have cancer.”Caught early, our illnesses were treatable. But had we ignored those signs until they became more blatant, our stories would have had very different outcomes.One of the most damaging conditions to the health and effectiveness of teams is low trust. Like cancer, it initially produces signs that are subtle, yet dangerous to ignore: people hold back, meeting after the meeting, players left out of decisions. Collaboration doesn’t gel, team members trudge through the status quo, and engagement slips.As with cancer, early recognition and treatment are critical.Are you like many leaders who see signs of low trust in your teams and are looking for ways to address it? You can initiate three stages to turn teams around from low to high trust.Stage one: assess trustTake an honest look at how team behaviors contribute to trust. Teams value trust, but often forget their behavior builds it.Tap into internal or external support to give you an objective gauge of trust. Consider using a survey tool that validly measures trust to get a baseline of where your team’s trust stands.Probe for deeper understanding. Talk to members about their experiences of trust. Listen to what has been difficult and why.Pay attention to everyday dynamics, which get in the way of trust. Do team members give feedback with the intention to help? When a deadline is missed, do they take collective responsibility or criticize and blame others? Are they clear about what is expected, and do what they say they will do? Do they bring issues directly to the individual involved, or gossip about it to everyone else?This stage will require you to take a courageous, holistic look at team behaviors that erode trust. You will create awareness and prepare people to leverage opportunities.Stage two: address trustOpenly discuss the results from the assessment of trust.Work with your team to pinpoint two to three trust-related behaviors which, when strengthened, will make a difference.Bring the team tools to help them leverage those opportunities. If there is gossip, help your team learn how to work through issues. If people feel left out of decisions, invite their input. If members are reluctant to take risks, make it safe to admit and learn from mistakes.Equip your team with a language to discuss trust regularly. Model the transparency and open communication you wish to see. Make trust behaviors a part of everyday work.Stage three: assimilate trustWith discipline, high-trust behaviors become the norm on your team. Do not take trust for granted. Sustaining it requires constant effort.Encourage authentic dialogue around needs, uncertainties, and vulnerabilities.Ensure clear expectations, roles and responsibilities, decision-making, and agreements are standard practice.Address subtle signs telling you trust might be vulnerable the moment you see them. Be willing to wade into ambiguity and areas of difficulty. Doing so will help your team address concerns before they become problems.Case in pointThrough these stages, leaders have experienced dramatic turnarounds.A manufacturing plant went from the lowest to the highest producer of a 12-plant network in 18 months.Engagement scores in a global financial services organization improved by 25 percent in nine monthsAn insurance company’s bogged-down $30 million initiative moved ahead of schedule.As part of our cancer treatments, we became more attentive to things like healthier nutrition, appropriate exercise, and managing stress. Those changes, practiced with discipline, have brought us to a state of stronger health than we’d had before we became ill.Imagine your team in a state of vitality. When members need support they ask for and receive it. They step up with energy, new ideas, take risks, and share responsibility — not only for what they do, but also for how they do it. Confidence and commitment abounds.If that image seems far from reality, maybe it’s time to take the first step toward high team trust.

Three Stages to Take Your Team from Low to High Trust

Trust begins with you. Trust begins with me.Many people tell us that doing what you say you will do builds “trust of character.” A core behavior that builds trust is keeping agreements. It is simple to say. But in today’s pace, both at work and  home, it is easy to lose sight of an agreement and fail to keep it.When you do what you say you will do, you build trust. Others see you as reliable and dependable. They know they can count on you to come through for them. When you fail to keep your agreements with others, you compromise trust. The only person who has never broken a commitment is the person who has never made one.Have you ever slipped up? Failed to keep agreements? Let someone down? We all have. No one sets out to let others down, either at work or at home, nevertheless we do.What gets in the way of keeping agreements?You face the unexpected. A piece of the project takes longer than anticipated. You can’t get your hands on a critical piece of information. A child is sick so you have to get to a doctor. A spouse has to unexpectedly go out of town and you become a single parent. The furnace stopped working, and it is below zero degrees outside. Let’s face it. Sometimes, it is really hard to do what we say we will do.You don't say no. You agree to something against your better judgment. You said yes, when your inner voice wanted to say no, or not right now. You want to be seen as reliable and dependable as a team player. You over extend yourself and put yourself in a situation where it becomes very difficult to do what you say you will do. People rely on you and you carry the stress and worry about how you are going to come through. You might even beat yourself up for saying yes.You face the crescendo effect. When the accumulation of commitments from all aspects of your life mount, you don’t see how you can possible do all that you said you would do. You have your daily demands and then there are the “above and beyond” demands. You serve on the leadership conference planning committee, assume the project lead role of a team, spearhead a new service offer, direct your sons school play, plan a family reunion, sell and buy a house. Something is going to give – either by default, or by a conscious choice.You feel vulnerable and procrastinate. You made the agreement as an opportunity to contribute to the project and to stretch yourself, though your enthusiasm got out a bit ahead of yourself. You want to deliver, yet you are not sure you have the knowledge and experience to back up your agreement. You begin to second-guess yourself creating your own delays. The next thing you know it is too late.Nobody wants to let others down or be seen as the person who does not keep promises. When you face the unexpected, say yes when you mean no, suffer from the crescendo effect or feel vulnerable, it does not have to cost you your trustworthiness. What is most important to managing trust is how you respond.Here are steps you can take to preserve your trustworthiness. Trust begins with you. Take responsibility. Even though others may have contributed to your challenge, do not point the finger or blame.Acknowledge the original agreement.Re-cap what you had promised to do.State what you know others expect from you.Share the unexpected challenge to honor your original agreement.The review process is taking longer than I anticipated.I am waiting for a critical piece of information.My child is sick and I have other responsibilities right now.Tell the truth about your circumstance and vulnerability.I knew how important this is for the team, and I want to carry my weight. In the spirit of being a trusted team member, I over-committed and find myself over-extended.I have a number of commitments that are adding up. I find myself in a situation where I cannot fulfill them all.I am a bit nervous that I bit off more than I could chew.Ask for what you needI need two more days. Is that possible?I could use the help of XYZ. Can you help me line that up?I’d like to hand in a draft and gain some feedback. Is that possible?When you acknowledge at the earliest time possible you are not able to keep the original agreement and renegotiate the commitment, you maintain trust—even build it. In addition to building trust in your relationships, you model for others how to manage their agreements. Consider how you would like others to keep the agreements they make with you. Be that person. Trust begins with you.

Is Your Character Trustworthy?

Everyone wants to be on a team that shares ideas, leverages members’ talents, works through challenges, communicates openly and honestly, and trusts one another. Trust creates an environment where people want to work.Yet every day, trust is tested in team relationships. Trust is fragile and our everyday behaviors in team interactions can unintentionally fracture it in small, subtle ways.Minor breaches of trust add up over time to create major betrayals. When someone arrives late to meetings, it sends the message that their time is more important. When a team member misses deadlines and doesn’t renegotiate the timeline or acknowledge the impact that has on other team members, it violates trust. When a team member repeatedly ignores requests for information, it bottlenecks team progress. When a team member faces unanticipated challenges that require additional time or resources, and the teammates fail to rally around and create solutions—and view it as someone else’s problem—it compromises trust.Behaviors that break trust may seem small and subtle, but their impact is not.  Feelings of anger, resentment, helplessness, and fear cloud thinking. People pull back, disengage, and lose their sense of pride in their work and self-confidence.People may not intend to behave in ways that compromise trust, but it happens. Here are 7 common ways in which trust is broken in teams.Members talk about one another behind their back. Gossip is the number one behavior that erodes trust within teams. Rather than going directly to the individual with an issue or concern, members talk to everyone else. The grapevine flourishes.Team members shoot the messenger. The person who delivers information to the team they don’t want to hear is blamed. Instead of addressing the issue, the team attacks the person. This discourages telling the truth in your team and suppresses open communication.Team members accept credit for the work they did not perform. Collaboration involves acknowledging the contributions of everyone involved. The sins of omission are betrayals to team members. Team members send mixed messages. Members no longer perceive one another as reliable and dependable and in this climate of uncertainty; they become jaded and no longer know what can be believed. Team members break confidentiality. Disclosing information members have been trusted to keep private, whether it is personal or professional, violates trust. Breaches of confidentiality encourage paranoia and misunderstandings. Team members are unwilling to consider new ideas or methods. When new ideas are shot down team members stop coming up with them. Creativity and innovation plummet.Team members get even for perceived wrong doings. Tit-for-tat behaviors escalate distrust. “You don’t give me information, why should I give you information? You don’t return my phone calls, why should I return yours?” Reciprocity ratchets trust either up, or down.How can your team address trust-breaking behaviors? For starters, invite your team to reflect on their team behavior. Consider sharing this post with your team as a reference point for discussion and action. Do members talk directly to one another about disappointments, let downs, and frustrations?What happens when members of your team bring bad news to one another’s attention?Do members share in the credit for the work they perform, or jockey for recognition?Do members walk their talk, or say one thing and then do another?How safe is it to share information on your team?How open and receptive is your team to new ideas of others?When trust is broken, how do members on your team respond? Trust begins with you. Consider how your behavior contributes to the presence or absence of trust in your team dynamics. When you and your team redirect these common tests of trust, you will transform behavior that transcends any challenge.

Michelle Reina

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