Building Trust in the Workplace

Building trust is like building the foundation of a home. “Good bones” last generations.

Trust is foundational in all relationships whether they are personal or professional. Corporate speakers and authors are discussing trust more fervently as new research and studies show that trust generates more engaged employees and therefore more productivity. By now, most managers and CEOs realize the importance of trust. If that is the case, then why aren’t more people investing the time and resources to build trust? Why is trust still elusive?

To begin, let’s go back and look at trust as a child. We trusted everyone! It did not matter who it was, but if they wanted to play, you were in. As we grew older, we began to learn that we cannot trust everyone. We started the process of analyzing motives and matching a person’s words and actions with our own value systems. By the time we were adults we were going into most situations with some amount of distrust until proven otherwise. The proof was often a feeling of safety, enough to let your guard down and say, “This isn’t too bad.”

What does this mean for the workplace? It means that both employees and employers are going into the hiring process with some amount of distrust. You must prove yourself and your worth. Usually, it is the employee proving themselves as they go through rounds of interviews. Being an interviewee on several occasions I, like many, forgot that this process is a two-way street. Interviewees, do you ask how the employer is going to take care of you, make you feel safe? Employers, do you feel the need to keep your employees safe?

What is safety or creating a safe space? Making sure your employees are physically safe is a given, but what about mentally and emotionally safe? I’m not referring to having group therapy in the conference room, but do your employees feel comfortable speaking up in meetings and sharing their ideas, or is it like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? Cue the crickets. Do they seek your advice when they get stuck or feel comfortable when receiving feedback? Do people whisper around the water cooler or mutter, “That’s not my job” when given a new task that may be outside the realm of their job description? Are there cliques or groups that at times leave other members out of the loop? Are you running into numerous communication issues that often lead to conflict? These are all signs that something is fundamentally not working, and it is usually linked back to not spending enough time building trust.

When creating any sort of team building program or training, I spend at least half the time on building trust. Everything after is a cake walk. Working in a treatment center for two years I often found myself in a constant state of catering to the forming and storming phases of group development. Meaning, I spent most of my time building trust and not just between the clients, but between myself and the clients. What I found was, as a leader of that group, I had to go first when it came to building trust. A therapist is taught to guard themselves and not to disclose too much about their personal life because it wasn’t about them, it was about the client. This formula didn’t work for me since I was a group facilitator and not a therapist. I didn’t get the one-on-one time that helps build trust. I needed them to get comfortable quickly and disclosing first did that. I didn’t go overboard with personal information, but just when a personal anecdote was needed to get a point across. I needed them to open-up and participate in discussion on extremely difficult topics on day one. As a manager, leader, or CEO, you need to do the same.

Here are 10 ways to work on trust in the workplace:

1.      Do not underestimate the time needed to build trust. Make the time. It is the foundation of everything else you are doing in your business and has direct affect on productivity, engagement, turnover rates, not to mention your bottom line. If these things are important to you, you’ll make the time.

2.      If you’re going to do a fun activity for your employees to get to know one another make sure it is not just a onetime thing. So, a happy hour is a good start as is an escape room, golf, go carts, trampolines, etc. I want to emphasize the word start. You must start somewhere but do not also make it the end as well.

3.      Be intentional with your time. I know you are busy. Everyone is busy so be more intentional when you do set aside time. In my experience people do not always spend their fun time learning about one another. Doing those activities often leads back to work conversations. Let work conversations stay at work. Have your employees be put in situations where they must talk about themselves. Hire outside facilitators to help with these conversations. It can be done in a fun way still, but a good facilitator will intertwine some of those personal things too.

4.      Be the person to go first. By being open, you are demonstrating that you are someone that others can be open with. Trust begets trust. Trust builds respect and allows for more fruitful personal and professional relationships. Trust and respect also play a factor in quick conflict resolution.

5.      Look at your processes. When your goals, visions, expectations, and how you relate them are clear and upheld, this alone can help build trust. These are a part of your business culture. When a new employee walks in and sees that you are a well-oiled machine that can give them a feeling of safety. Take time to iron out those bottlenecks in the way you function as a team internally.

6.      Does your team work remotely or in silos? Still make time to build trust! It’s more imperative because they don’t see each other every day. Whether it is online meetings or you’re able to bring everyone together for retreats, don’t skimp on this time.

7.      Is your team running smoothly, or with minor road bumps? Still build trust as it can also relate to higher collaboration that could lead to new innovations and higher creativity levels.

8.      Do you work alone? Keep trust in mind when working with new clients. Ultimately, they are buying into you. Find out who they are and what makes them tick.

9.      Show appreciation! In Paul Zak’s book Trust Factor, The Science of Creating High-Performance Companies, he writes that in a study of 100,000 employees, 79% stated they left because of lack of appreciation. Celebrate reaching those goals! He also warns to not celebrate with monetary items. Keeping up internal motivation is the key and money is an external motivator.

10.   Take a culture inventory. Be mindful of the interactions between employees. Create surveys and talk to employees about their feelings towards working there. Ask for feedback and be open to it. You may feel defensive in this process, but if you’re open and wanting to help your business develop then it will get easier.

Related Books on Trust

Paul J. Zak - Trust Factor: The Science of Creating High-Performance Teams

Patrick Lencioni – The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Simon Sinek – Start With Why