What about
Trust?
Trust is one of those
“catch-all / rhetorical” term that is often used (and abused), but rarely
understood or pragmatically dealt with in the workplace. Everyone knows what
happens to a relationship with a loved one (child or spouse) when trust is
broken. But although the same dire consequences resulting from lack of trust
afflict workplace climate, rarely does one see “improve team members’ trust” as
a business improvement initiative.
What is Trust anyway?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary (www.merriam-webster.com), trust is
“a belief that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, effective, etc.”
Being trustworthy is “the ability to be relied on to do or provide what is
needed or right... to be deserving of trust, worthy of confidence, dependable”.
Author and founding CEO of
Trusted Advisor Associates (www.trustedadvisor.com), Charles H. Green explains
what trust is in terms of four (4) dimensions that are combined into a “Trust
Equation”. According to Green, trustworthiness – often referred by Green as the
Trust Quotient (TQ) – is simply defined as Trust = (Credibility + Reliability +
Intimacy) / Self-Orientation.
In other words, the more
credibly, reliably and/or intimately, one behaves... and/or the less
self-oriented one appears, the more trustworthy one is. With Green’s formula,
it becomes quite obvious which quality a leader must embody in order to inspire
trust with his/her employees and colleagues.
Why does
Trust Matter?
Put simply, for anyone to
care about the “state of trust” in a group, a team, or an entire organization,
one has to see a link between trust and team effectiveness and business
performance. And the good news is: there is such a relationship! In fact, if
one dares to “google” the word trust, aside from finding thousands of relevant
search results, one would find that it is often associated with team
effectiveness and organizational performance.
In his book “The Five
Dysfunctions of a Team”, business author Patrick Lencioni
(www.tablegroup.com/pat/), proposes a 5-dimension model of team effectiveness
in which Trust is the foundation. According to Lencioni, effective teams are
characterized by, amongst other things, team members trusting one another. But,
more importantly, a team where trust is lacking will: “Conceal their weaknesses
and mistakes from others; Hesitate to provide constructive feedback and to
offer help outside of their area of expertise; Fail to tap into the skills of
others in the team; Waste time and energy managing their behaviours for effect;
and Hold grudges”. This lack of trust, Lencioni says, is the cornerstone of the
5 dysfunctions that afflict so many ineffective teams.
The way these five team
issues are interrelated is as follow: “1. If the members of the team do not
trust each other, then they cannot be totally honest with each other. 2;
Without trust, people will not have the healthy debates that are necessary to
arrive at better decisions. 3; If the team have not aligned behind a decision,
then the individual members who did not agree with the final decision will
ultimately be less committed to that decision; 4. If they are not committed to
the course of action, then they are less likely to feel accountable and/or to
hold other people accountable; and 5. Consequently, the team members are less
likely to care about the group results (and instead focus on achieving their
own goals).” As we can see from Lencioni’s model, Trust amongst team members is
the basic ingredient that leaders need to have if they want their employees
work effectively with one another.
Another way to link Trust to
Team Effectiveness is by looking at its culture and its work climate. Research
from the Hay Group (www.haygroup.com) has shown that improvement in the climate
of an organization can result in as much as 30% increase in bottom line
performance. Another research done by the 6Seconds International Consortium
(www.6Seconds.org) showed that the climate of an organization could explain up
to 60% of a company’s performance. To measure the climate of a team and
evaluate its impact on performance, researchers at 6Seconds devised an
assessment tool called Vital Signs. This survey instrument relies on a Team
Climate model that measures five (5) important drivers of effectiveness (trust,
engagement, teamwork, agility and productivity) in relation to two major team
dimensions: the “Operational-Strategic” axis and the
“Individual-Organizational” spectrum (see chart below).
Based on research and
experience, it was concluded that the climate of a group strongly influences
critical employee behaviors such as communication, problem-solving, and
accountability – factors intimately linked to the effectiveness of a team and
that affect key performance indicators related to customers, employees, quality
and profitability. Trust being the overlay dimension in 6Seconds’ Team Climate
model, it plays a critical role in establishing the required levels of
confidence, faith, and surety that engenders a willingness to risk and
facilitates success in the other climate factors.
What can
you do about it?
Clearly, the question is not
whether Trust matters but how can you, as a leader, improve it? The first step
towards this goal is to be a role a role model – to demonstrate trust in your
attitude and behavior at work. This requires from the leader to be credible,
reliable, intimate and authentic, and selfless. Inspiring trust by being
trustworthy is essential. But it’s not sufficient.
As in most situations, a
leader can’t manage what he/she doesn’t measure. Assessing the confidence level
within your team is also crucial in enhancing trust and improving team
effectiveness as a whole. To assess trust, keep your eyes open; review past mistakes
from team members and ask yourself whether they came forward immediately after
committing the “faux pas” or was their first instinct to bury or deny the
mistake; Interview people – within and outside the team – and ask them whether
the team members openly admit their mistakes and willingly apologize to one
another, whether they acknowledge their weaknesses to one another and ask for
help without hesitation, whether they recognize and tap into one another’s
skills and expertise, etc.
To go beyond this baseline
“qualitative” evaluation of team trust and effectiveness, you should consider
conducting a more thorough and systematic assessment using a known survey
instrument. As an appendix to Lencioni’s book (The Five Dysfunctions of a
Team), a 38-question Team Assessment is provided. The goal of this survey is to
provide you (the team leader) with a sense of your team’s unique strengths and
areas for improvement along the five dimensions of Lencioni’s team model:
Trust, Conflict, Commitment, Accountability, and Results. Another thorough
analysis of a team’s ability to work effectively and drive successful business
outcomes is 6Second’s Team Climate assessment (Team Vital Signs). For a more
accurate and holistic analysis, it is recommended to have your entire team
complete the assessment. While the results themselves provide an interesting
perspective, the most important benefit of such assessment is the discussion
that it is likely to provoke around specific team issues.
As a leader, you play a key
role in influencing the mood and attitude of your team members. This ultimately
impacts the trust level within the team. As such, you should always be open
with your employees – not only do transparency and humility help improve your
credibility, but debriefing your findings (qualitative or quantitative) with
your team members and involving them in the solution will go a long way in
boosting their trust and improving their engagement. As you debrief the results
of the team assessment, ask your employees to come up with practical solutions
that you can collectively implement. If you’re uncertain as to how to go about
this, follow the simple “Start-Stop-Continue” approach. Keeping in mind the
assessment results, have the team answer the following three (3) questions:
- START: What would you like the team to start to do (or do more)?
- STOP: What would you like the team to stop doing (or do less)?
- CONTINUE: What would you like the team to continue to do (that’s working well)?
Based on the outcome of this
group discussion, prioritize and implement the top suggestions, regularly
monitor and evaluate the progress that you and your team make on these
improvement initiatives, and readjust accordingly. Finally, keep in mind that
trust is, for the most part, associated with the emotional aspects of people’s
perceptions and reactions (behaviors). As such, strive to be an emotionally
intelligent leader, i.e.: sense, understand and work productively with your own
emotions and those of your employees.
What do you think?
- Patrick
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