Kathy Shanley, the Founder of Statice, served 30 years in the C-suite. She helps leaders and businesses level up their leadership skills.
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Trust is the foundation of the greatest teams. Period. Trust is essential in any kind of team, whether we are talking about an individual department, cross-organizational teams that come together for a project, or a business-client relationship. According to the Thin Book of Trust by Charles Feltman, trust is rooted in four behaviors. I believe developing these behaviors must be part of your business strategy because this foundational trust contributes to the collective success of all partners.
Develop these four behaviors to help instill trust:
1. Competence
Competence is why organizations and clients hire you. They are saying, “I know you can do this.” Once hired, you expect an understanding of the scope of work, goals and priorities. Businesses also need to ensure individuals have the authority they need to do what you’ve asked them to do. What can the person move forward on without your approval? Where does their authority start and stop? When you give authority, it says you have confidence in their competence, and it can help build trust.
While your skills to do the job were what got you hired, it’s the other three behaviors that can help you keep or elevate that trust.
2. Care
Whether it is your client or other team members, care is about believing everyone is in this together—think "we"—rather than individuals being in it for themselves. One strategy to develop this behavior is to create a team alliance with your partners. Discuss how you prefer to work together, the atmosphere you want and the values you want to live by.
One team I work with created an alliance that included leadership’s commitment to being more transparent in their communications and expectations. The team also agreed to create an environment that encouraged learning from failure, more flexibility and having fun. They placed a high value on mutual respect and everyone’s role in the business relationship.
3. Sincerity
A genuine “we” is rooted in sincerity. Trusting teams support each other, collaborate, mean what they say, say what they mean and act accordingly. That same team I mentioned builds trust by assuming that each team member has the best of intentions in their words and actions. They are more intentional in providing timely and accurate information to each other.
Examples include something as simple as giving the finance team a heads up that a pending contract is about to be signed that requires payment or letting a supervisor know a client relationship is in danger. When things get tough, the team can trust they are committed to discussing issues openly and examining their own actions.
4. Reliability
Being reliable means, “We can count on you to deliver what you promise.” Businesses can elevate reliability by helping team members clearly communicate what they are delegating and requesting of the other person. It’s also about confirming understanding to ensure you both walk away with the same expectations of what’s needed.
The team felt that reliability was closely aligned with being individually accountable for maintaining the brand of the business or larger group. Reliability is trusting that individuals will show up prepared and on time for meetings, demonstrate polite attention, be responsive and ask questions to clarify what is expected. When trust is challenged, individuals will address missed deadlines and deliverables with each other immediately.
Why should businesses care about developing these four behaviors? It’s about how your team members trust each other and clients trust you. For individuals, if you occasionally make a mistake or contradict yourself, others are more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt if they believe you care and are sincere. For businesses, teams that have strong trusting relationships can be more prone to innovation, productive conflict and debate about ideas, and having fun working together.
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