Trust & Teambuilding

The term Trust gets thrown around at work a lot. We use it so often that you’d think we all collectively understand what it is and why it’s so important. But it’s worth unpacking this concept a bit to make sure we really do know why it plays such an important role in teams.

Trust refers to an intersecting set of beliefs about the relationship between what other people say and do and what they mean and accomplish. Trust reflects that you believe that team members are telling you the truth and not omitting crucial information in their accounts. It reflects that people will follow through on their commitments. Trust also involves a belief that other people are capable of fulfilling the tasks they set out to perform.

Here are the three reasons why trust is so crucial.

FUTURE PLANNING

A critical part of planning for the future is having a clear sense of what is going on within an organization. A plan starts with knowledge of what is happening in the present. That means when someone gives you information about their capabilities and the current status of project, that information has to be accurate.

A lack of trust in the information you get from team members adds uncertainty to the planning process. You may no longer feel like you have an accurate sense of the current situation or the capabilities of the group. That can make it hard to get a project moving. As a result, you may feel like you have to verify information you’re getting from others before moving forward. Not only is that process time-consuming, but it may also make team members feel like you are checking on up them, which can further erode trust.

DISTRIBUTING WORK

Trust is also crucial for ensuring that every member of a team is assigned a reasonable share of the work. When you don’t believe that your team members will follow through on their commitments (or that they are capable of doing a good job with the tasks), then you shy away from giving them responsibilities. As a result, the rest of the team must carry more of the load.

In addition, when you are forced to rely on the teammates you do not trust, you end up micromanaging their work. You may find yourself telling them how to carry out key aspects of the job, checking up on each step, and asking for confirmation when things are completed. Not only does that take away from your own effectiveness, it leads to frustration from those being micromanaged.

YOUR MOTIVATION

At times, your supervisor has lost your trust. That can undermine your energy and enthusiasm to work. Lots of research suggests that your motivation to complete a task is influenced by whether you think the task can be completed as well as your sense of whether your efforts will be rewarded. When you don’t trust your supervisor, both of these facets of motivational strength are diminished. That can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy in which you believe that a job will fail, so you don’t put in much work, which then leads the job to fail.

Unfortunately, this pattern feeds on itself. Your mistrust of management increases the chances that a task will go badly. When the team does not achieve its goals, leadership loses faith in the effectiveness of the team, which affects the way they treat the team in the future. Likewise, the team members are reinforced in their sense that management is ineffective.