We talk about trust a lot don’t we. We know it’s critical. And yet lacking in some organisations. Can you build it from the inside out, from within your own team and hopefully embed it more widely?

by Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe

Building trust in a team is critical to having a productive, empowering organisation culture and can help ensure the team collaborates as a high-performing team.

From my experience I suggest five ways leaders can build trust in their teams.

1. Have conversations

Talk about fear and trust in key organisation meetings, from town halls to Trusts. Encourage feedback and for employees to reach out for a one-on-one meeting (not all employees will speak openly in large group forums so factor this in too)

2. Make failure a learning and teaching opportunity

Organisations and people must take risks to innovate and grow. Sometimes these risks may work out, sometimes they won’t. Encourage a culture of learning from failure.

3. Engage with employees at all levels

Hierarchical organisations with a strong chain of command are seen as old-school. The leadership team should be asked to get out there and engage with the wider employee set, attend large group or have individual catch ups.

4. Authentic, personal communication voice

Employees are not keen to here ‘corporate speak’. Leaders should feel free to use an authentic style of personal communication – telling stories from their career, their childhood, their life.

5. Role model the leadership behaviour you would like to see

Actively live the behaviours you expect from your employees. Demonstrate trust in colleagues, your boss, board etc and never bad mouth anyone, even in a ‘joking’ way.

None of these are a silver bullet and will require consistent, lived experiences for a trusting culture to emerge from a previously toxic or disconnected one.

I would love to know what techniques have worked for you?

Give me a shout on Twitter.

Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe is a global communications professional looking for a senior role with a responsible business. You can say hello on Twitter at @DeepaThomas

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Image via Kheel Centre