Article : Building Trust in the Team

building trust and teamwork

Article :   Building Trust in the Team           © 2009. Performance Development Pty. Ltd.

                                             “Coming together is a beginning.
                                              Keeping together is progress.
                                              Working together is success”
                                                                       - Henry Ford

Your team can develop norms and values that encourage a climate of trust within the team; however it does take some effort. This short article offers some basic reminders about building trust.

Trust is one of those intangible qualities in relationships that typically takes considerable time to construct, and yet it can be so quickly destroyed through one thoughtless remark or one selfish action.

Team norms that foster trust in the workplace and therefore build teamwork, include …
- being open to considering new and different ideas
- telling people what you think and how you really feel
- accepting that disagreement can be healthy, when it is constructively approached
- telling the truth
- giving and receiving feedback in a positive manner
- honouring your commitments to team-mates and sticking to agreements
- respecting what is revealed to you in confidence
- supporting your team-mates when they are down or struggling

Although the team can foster trust by the acceptance of values such as these, trust is still primarily about interpersonal relationships and communication in the team.

The key to developing trust is to be trustworthy. If you express your feelings openly and acknowledge the feelings of other team members, you are more likely to get the same kind of response from your team-mates. If you tell the truth and even disagree in a helpful manner, other team members over time will probably learn to respond to you in turn with a similar constructive manner.

In other words, trust is usually based upon the principle of reciprocation – what we give out, comes back to us. It all sounds very familiar, doesn’t it?

Team Building for your workgroup - If you are considering a workshop for your own workgroup, and seeking to promote improved trust and teamwork, please visit our webpage for what we can offer Team Building Facilitation

For a list of scheduled training courses, view Management Training Courses

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