I speak to a lot of leaders that have, for various reasons, found themselves managing competitive and distrusting teams. As well as being bad for general team morale, this kind of mindset makes it difficult to manage a team. So what’s the best way to completely re-establish trust, and rebuild your team’s foundations? It’s by no means an easy one, but here’s what I’d recommend:
1. Start by calling a meeting
Make sure everyone is there. Acknowledge any problems with trust you’ve witnessed, but try to avoid sharing specific examples of where you’ve seen it which name and shame people. Explain this is the reason why you’re not giving specific evidence but remind them that, if they think about it, they will be able to recall plenty of evidence points.
Tell them that you know trust may take a while to re-establish, having been so badly eroded. However, make it clear that you are determined to do so.
2. Then the real work starts…
The basis of great team functioning isn’t just trust, it’s also the wider characteristic of psychological safety, where (1) people trust each other enough to be themselves, (2) be vulnerable and (3) take reasonable risks, knowing that (4) they won’t be blamed if they get it wrong.
Bearing this somewhat lengthy definition of psychological safety in mind, start working on building up each of the four elements a little at a time. Encourage team members to tell the others something about themselves that others don’t know; ask them to speak of a time they did something wrong at work; set mini-projects where the team are reliant on each other to make it work; praise great teamwork, and show that there isn’t blame if things don’t quite work out. As the leader of a team that’s struggling with these elements, you’re going to need to play a big part in role-modelling what you want to see and showering praise on those who are working hard to build psychological safety.
3. And NOW, keep going!
Keep talking to the team about the psychological safety you’re looking to develop and tell them the great successes they’re having to get there. If you find, by working through the issues with trust, that there are any particularly difficult relationships which have spilt over into conflict, you may need to pay those relationships particular attention. Here’s advice I’ve previously given on handling conflict between two or more members of a team.
Three resources to help with improving trust in a mistrusting team:
- Extra ideas on how to build psychological safety (focus on EDI, careful communication, and don’t worry about being perfect):
https://hbr.org/2022/12/a-guide-to-building-psychological-safety-on-your-team - Why mistrust on a team trust can be a disaster (get them to read this if they’re struggling to turn things around):
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2019/10/24/lack-of-trust-can-make-workplaces-sick-and-dysfunctional/ - 5 companies that use teamwork in inspiring ways (draw lessons from Google, Wynn Resorts, Pixar, Marvel Comics and Ford):
https://allonehealth.com/5-examples-of-amazing-teamwork/
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