We often speak of trust as a fixed, static idea — “We trust the Union” or “the Operations Team doesn’t trust us.” But trust is more complex than that, and oversimplifying our understanding of trust prevents us from applying the proper techniques to improve it. Instead, leaders should consider the three fundamental raw materials that trust is built from: competence, benevolence, and reliability.
How these materials mix will depend on context. But effective leaders need to assess which of these components of trust are lacking within their teams — and follow steps tailored to that specific component of trust.
It’s time to abandon generalized, generic models for building trust. Below we share the three steps you can follow to build trust by first identifying which of the raw materials of trust your teams are lacking, and then using the right methods to increase them.
Step 1: Make Sure Everyone Knows What They’re Doing (Competence)
What It Is
Competence is the ability to do something efficiently and successfully. It includes hard skills, such as technical knowledge (the ability to create and deliver a product or service), but also soft skills, such as social knowledge (an understanding of people and team environments). In short, competent people are “good at their job.”
How You Know It’s Missing
In many ways, competence is often the easiest to assess, as people either possess the necessary skills to execute their job or they don’t. However, poor performance is not always a direct result of incompetence, as there may be other factors at play. Someone may know how to get the job done but lack the capacity due to a host of factors, such as having too many tasks to do, personal stress, or not being given the proper tools to succeed. Determining which factor may be at play as a leader prevents acting on faulty assumptions.
What To Do About It
- Provide targeted feedback. To give effective feedback you must first clarify what “good” looks like. This might be a job description or a conversation at the beginning of a project to clarify expectations for each individual in the team. By establishing that benchmark first, it allows you to provide targeted feedback by comparing actual performance to already agreed-upon expectations. Once that gap between performance and expectations is understood, you can work with your team member to develop an improvement plan.
- Ask questions and coach. The best way to change someone’s behaviors is not to tell them the answers but to ask questions that help them find the answers themselves. Try asking a struggling team member: “I saw x and y this week and I am concerned; can you tell me what’s going on?” and “what do you think should happen next and how can I support you?” Asking – rather than simply directing – empowers your people to act and builds a relationship of mutual respect.
- Acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses and openly share that information with others. Demonstrating self-awareness regarding your skills will give others confidence that you understand your limitations and the value you can add to the team. Then proactively take steps to mitigate those limitations, either through personal development (training, mentoring, practice) or procuring the support of others who can ensure no balls are dropped.
Step 2: Build your Team into a Community (Benevolence)
What It Is
Benevolence is the quality of being well-meaning and the degree to which you have others’ interests at heart. Benevolent people care about others. The more a teammate can demonstrate the motivation to serve others or the team, the greater trust is built.
How You Know It’s Missing
A lack of benevolence can show up as siloes, where people consistently choose themselves and/or their team over others. Other subtle ways include team meetings where people may respond to others with what seems like agreement before following it up with “but,” interrupting speakers, or ignoring requests for help.
What To Do About It
When you notice a lack of benevolence, avoid judgment. Every person believes they’re doing the right thing under the circumstances. So as a leader, seek to understand why they took a particular action that appeared self-serving. Techniques to improve benevolence include:
- Active listening helps demonstrate that you’re paying attention, that you wish to understand someone else, and that you care about their answers and, by extension, them as a person. Active listening can be broken into three subskills, all of which you can start implementing today to understand your people better:
- Paraphrasing- Restate what the person said in your words.
“Let me say that back to you to make sure I understand…” - Labelling- Identify the emotion being shown by your team member
“Seems like that is really frustrating.” or “Sounds like that made you angry.” - Mirroring- Ask someone to explain what they mean by certain words or phrases
“I just don’t understand what they think they’re doing. It’s so confusing.”
“What do you mean by confusing?”
- Paraphrasing- Restate what the person said in your words.
- Ask for help when you need it. As a leader, the willingness to share and request assistance sets an example for others to follow, and also signals to everyone that this is a place where we help each other. To begin, start with small tasks that may not take much time but might make a considerable difference to freeing up your capacity, and be sure to recognize and thank those who step up to help.
- Incentivize collaboration. This doesn’t necessarily mean changing pay structures or job titles but examining how your team members are assessed and rewarded for good performance. For example, specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) may be so individually focused that to do their job well asks them to take a siloed approach and to be self-centered. There is nothing wrong with that if that behavior helps contribute to the company’s success. However, if that’s not desired, examine where and how measures can incentivize collaboration and team success over individual performance.
Step 3: Build Consistency Into People and Processes (Reliability)
What It Is
Reliability is the ability to be dependable and behave consistently. Reliable people do what they say they will.
How You Know It’s Missing
The easiest way to know that reliability is missing is when timelines are not respected. A lack of reliability can also show up in other ways as well, including treating others inconsistently (showing favoritism or being particularly hard on someone), or hypocrisy in asking people to do something they wouldn’t do themselves.
What To Do About It
Reliability begins with accountability and transparency.
- If someone is not delivering what they’re supposed to, when they’re supposed to, explicitly have that conversation about expectations and consequences. By coming together to mutually agree on objectives, responsibilities, and expectations and putting it down in writing, you now have a vehicle to hold people accountable for something they agreed to and own. If they need more support, create frequent check-ins, but lessen the oversight as they develop a proven track record of delivering.
- Create transparency in what decisions are being made and why. Any time a request is made, it includes an explanation of the ultimate objective to help people understand why they are being asked to do something. That deeper understanding allows individuals to know where/how to deviate from the project should circumstances change. People like having reasons, so give them the ‘because’ behind a request so they can start to figure out what the team needs without being asked.
Unfortunately, these actions will only change the trust of your teams after a period of time. Trust is hard to build and happens slowly, which is why it is so important to start now. And even if the returns of these actions are down the line, there are slow, smooth actions that you can implement today that build the capacity for fast action when it’s needed most.
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