Trust is very important in today’s business environment. Good business starts from the teamwork and teamwork cannot be achieved if team members do not trust one another.
So, why I trust needed so much to build a successful team? There might be hundreds of answers for this question, but first of all, I would like to say, that, trust is connecting people, and when they trust one another, they can better concentrate on the work. Today, the most successful business teams are like families, where family members trust each other. Team members can rely on their colleagues, and can be sure that they will do their part of the work and such teams establish strong mechanisms, which is targeted to achieving business goals.
Now I will discuss why exactly do we need trust in a business. As I already mentioned above, business cannot survive without strong teamwork. Earlier, teams were built only for temporary projects, but now, when team working proved its high efficiency and business environment became extremely competitive, managers are searching for the ways to improve efficiency of their businesses and one of the best ways is strong team building.
Here are some tips how team leader should build trust in a team:
- Expose yourself.
Be open if front of your team. Your team members should know that you are just like them. You should admit your failures when it is needed. You should share your values and your visions with your team members and this will increase level of trust. If you will build a wall around, than others will act the same way.
- Take the hit.
Sometimes, it is really necessary you to take the hit instead of your team. This way you will show them, that you deserve to be trusted. Usually, when something unexpected happens, people are quickly pointing finger. If you won’t act the same way, than you will gain their trust and respect and they will know that they can rely on you.
- Build your team members up.
When you will have to tell somebody, for example your boss, or clients, about success and achieved goals, you should not say that it’s you who did everything. You should maximally praise your team and applause them, instead of praising yourself. By acting this way, first of all you will gain respect and loyalty of your team. Your reputation will get higher and they will not only respect you, but they will be willing to act the same way as you did. This will make connection among team members stronger and the trust deeper.
- Get rid of the leash.
You should give your team members freedom of exploring new ideas. They will feel themselves important. Additionally, they can often provide new ideas, which will turn very lucrative for your business. If you trust them and you will accept their ideas, they will be very grateful and level of trust towards you will surely increase.
- Accept confrontation.
Normally there should always be different thought about particular things among team members. It is not good to fight for proving that you or somebody else is right and someone is not right. You should accept confrontation and ask people to discuss everything and solve problems. If disagreement never occurs in a team this means that the team is afraid to express their thoughts or their disagreement and therefore, trust lever is pretty low.
- Find the values in each person.
Everyone has his own strength and weaknesses. It is just like in economics, one country has competitive advantage in production of one product and another has similar advantage in producing second product. Then they exchange these products and both countries are gaining from such transaction. You, as a manager should discover strengths and weaknesses of your team and distribute the tasks accordingly. You will see that your team will highly appreciate your knowledge of their individuality and individual approach to each member and they will trust you. Along with increased trust level, if you will understand unique strength of each person in your team you will be able to reach maximum efficiency for your business or project.
If there is trust in a team, members can work together. Manager will be trusted and respected and business will be productive.
As I wrote above, these are the tips both, managers and team members to ensure trusted relationships with team. Business, nowadays can be very dangerous environment, just like house in fire, and what if fireman could not trust one another? If you were a fireman, would you go to extinguish the fire with your colleague you don’t trust?!
In conclusion I would like to say that there are two ways to motivate people in a team. First is by gaining trust and respect and the second is fear. Fear can be a good motivator but you will never have good results if you use it. Workers will be always watching their back and will think less about their duties. Trust will drive people to think about their work more and will motivate them to be more productive and you will be respected as a good manager not only by your team, but by your bosses too.
References
- 6 Ways Leaders Can Build Trust. Retrieved from
http://michaelhyatt.com/6-ways-leaders-can-build-trust.html
- Trust in Business: The Core Concepts. Retrieved from
http://trustedadvisor.com/articles/trust-in-business-the-core-concepts
- Trust: A Critical Factor to Your Team's Success. Retrieved from
http://ezinearticles.com/?Trust:-A-Critical-Factor-to-Your-Teams-Success&id=57996
- What Are the Benefits of Teamwork in Business?. Retrieved from
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/benefits-teamwork-business-3250.html
- Teams and Teamwork. Retrieved from
http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Str-Ti/Teams-and-Teamwork.html
- Trust is very important for teamwork. Retrieved from
http://virk.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/trust-is-very-important-for-teamwork/
