Building trust is foundational element of successful teams. How you build trust however can be quite different for each team member. The following are the top 10 ways to build trust within the team. There are core elements that are important across each personality type. The first 4 items, are the core elements that are true across personalities. Following the top 4 I have identified specific areas that are more important to distinct personality types:
Core Trust Elements:
1. Think about commitments fully before making them.
2. Once a commitment is made, nurture it, follow through or manage new expectations if required.
3. Demonstrate your commitment to the team and the shared objective through concrete actions not just words.
4. Be open and honest about your opinions and goals; hidden agendas are a trust destroyer.
Team mate specific traits:
If your team members are more focused on the details of the task and the logical process trust is greater enhanced if you augment items 1 – 4 with items 5 – 8.
5. Share your thoughts and opinions succinctly.
6. Demonstrate a commitment to paying attention to detail.
7. Demonstrate a propensity for being accurate (not making factual errors).
8. Allow team members time to process a suggestion or perspective that you have offered.
If your team members are more focus on the team achieving together and the emotional connection of the team, trust is greater enhanced if you augment items 1 – 4 with items 9 and 10.
9. Build social bonds with team members demonstrating your commitment to the individuals not just the task at hand.
10. Actively listen to team members, questioning and commenting as appropriate to ensure clear understanding.
Once trust is established within a team the impact can be profound, it makes way for all the benefits of working as a team possible, without it they are all undermined.
Lynn
Team Enthusiast.
Lynn is a partner at Conundrum Adventures, a team building company that delivers high quality experiential team building to the corporate market.
Lynn has held executive positions at a variety of organizations. They include EVP of a dot-com start up responsible for vendor relationship management, technology and consulting to VP Global Sourcing for Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Throughout her career she has demonstrated the ability to lead and inspire teams to achieve excellent results. Lynn draws on her experience to effectively facilitate team discussions to find creative solutions to the most challenging problems. Lynn holds an HBA and an MBA degree from the Ivey Business School.
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