26. Working on trust in a team or organization

Many teams and organizations lose a lot of their performance capacity due to a lack of trust. And without trust there cannot be good cooperation. It is certainly worthwhile to understand how trust comes about, how it disappears, and with which approach it can be restored. We start from the definition that trust is the quality of a relationship. Relationships are made by the behavior of the parties involved, where the interaction in behavior (action and response) leads to trust or the lack thereof.

The simple statement that you have to give confidence in order to get it, may refer to that interaction, but it is far from sufficient in order to actively work on trust. It can even be doubted whether it is indeed true. It is perhaps just a statement where the blame is placed on the other side in the relationship.

Trust builds itself through finetuning in the relationship; alignment is a nice word for that. It means as much as being on the same wavelength on a number of important things. Confidence is created by aligning in three areas: in objectives, in competencies and in the personal relationship. In order to build trust, coordination must take place on these three axes. In an organization context, the initiative clearly lies with the management; it must give the incentive.

In terms of objectives, the management gives the initial impulse by being inspiring on mission, strategy and objectives. The intention is to have employees respond with enthusiasm. Whether this is actually the case will depend on the mental contract that exists between the organization (team) and the employee. (the reason for participating in the organization).

In terms of competencies, the management commits itself through clarity, openness and respect in regard to expectations and in genuine belief in the existing and potential competences of employees. The employees will hopefully respond with the same openness and realism.

On the relational level, the leadership gives an impetus through personal respect and integrity. These are two very extensive concepts that are fundamentally related to equality and the absence of use of power and certainly of manipulation and unpredictability. We learn from the mechanism of Transactional Analysis (E. Berne) that this adult approach has a great chance of being answered with adult behavior, but also with responsibility. Integrity and respect are the visible manifestations of this response.

If the start (initial impulse)  is good, and the response is as expected, motivation and involvement will arise on the part of the employee. On the leadership side, this will probably be answered by perseverance and even more inspiration, openness, respect and integrity. This will, in turn, be  picked up on by the employees and create a positive spiral that creates a growing trust between the two.

Crucial in this interaction is the balance between both leader and employee in terms of expectations versus reality. If the management gives a good start, but does not receive the expected response, then progress might stop due to the disappointment that comes with it. The same can happen on the part of the employees, who can be disappointed in the lack of input in the three areas of management. If there is no proper balance between expectations and reality, the positive spiral of trust building stops. In case on a significant unbalance, despondency and alienation can grow as well.

To restore confidence that has been damaged by past circumstances, a new leadership offers of course a great opportunity. But then management must be aware of what input they must give to the relationship, based on a realistic understanding of the shortcomings that have led to disappointment. Sometimes it will be necessary and certainly useful to explicitly state this intention and expectation as a starting point for recovery. That belongs to the openness. And the visible attempts to realize it belong to integrity.

We can call the leaders who are strong in this approach connecting leaders. It would be useful if they not only strengthen the relationship of trust between themselves and the team in this way, but also between the team members. This requires them to also be successful in their role as a “culture creator”. And that requires another set of skills.

Hugo Der Kinderen

February 2018