How To Develop Trust In Modern Work Teams
In the business landscape of our modern world, the structure and size of teams are constantly changing in a dynamic fashion.
Not only do team members come and go more rapidly than in the past, often it is necessary to integrate team members, or even entire teams, across several locations and time zones.
In addition to this, the complexity of modern business processes is greater than ever before, and therefore requires a closer integration of many distinct experts working in collaboration.
However, in order for teams to perform well together, it’s essential for team members to build up sufficient trust and rapport with each other.
Therefore, team members nowadays need to build up trust amongst each other faster than ever before.
Here we list our tips to increase the speed of building trust in teams.
Trust is essential for high-performing teams
Team members need to form constructive connections with each other, and ideally, these bonds are strong and positive. But sometimes they don’t develop properly, or – in the worst case – they are actually characterised by negative emotions.
Psychological studies show that positive relationships among team members are an essential ingredient of teams that consistently deliver a high performance.
In other words, the relationship between team members is far from being a personal matter. Instead, it has a direct impact on the success of your business, and so you need to pay attention to it.
Since the teams of the future are going to be even more dynamic, and more spread out across the globe, it’s essential to speed up the process of building positive connections that are founded on trust between team members.
In the past, this issue has often been ignored by the management, unless it presented itself as a problem.
We strongly suggest that you switch to a proactive approach of building trust in your teams if you want your business to perform well and remain competitive.
Complex tasks depend on teamwork
Over the past decades, our world has rapidly become more complex and dynamically interconnected. It is no surprise, then, that the process of doing business has likewise become more complex.
Due to this increase in complexity, the work of a larger number of experts in distinct fields has to be integrated with each other, in order for a company to perform well.
For example, modern marketing teams consist of specialists in many areas, such as content marketers, software developers, pay-per-click marketers, social media experts, and conversion optimisation specialists, to name just a few.
In order for the overall strategy of a business to be effective, it is essential that these diverse specialists work in close collaboration, to integrate their efforts with each other, and with the larger goals of the company.
Five tips to build trust more rapidly in dynamic teams
1. Transparency
Teach your team members to be more transparent. A great way to do this is if the team leaders demonstrate transparency to their colleagues.
Be willing to reveal your thought process, and share your doubts and uncertainties.
Critical for being transparent is the knowledge that it’s okay to make mistakes; that everyone makes mistakes, and that mistakes are a great opportunity for learning.
Once again, this works best if the leadership can demonstrate it in action. So be prepared to admit when you make a bad call, and give credit to others who do the same.
2. Encourage learning from each other
One of the great advantages of working in a team is the ability to learn from each other.
You can cultivate this by having regular learning sessions in which team members take turns to present their work, enabling others to discuss and learn from it.
These learning sessions not only strengthen the bonds between team members, they also make everyone more aware of the skills and expertise present within the team, which can be very useful for improving team performance.
3. Actively integrate new team members
When new members join a team, make sure they are actively integrated.
They should be introduced to everyone, both collectively and in one-on-one sessions.
Also, introduce new members to your team’s philosophy, and let them know what is expected of them as part of the team, and what they can expect from other team members.
4. Use regular outings to build team spirit
Company outings are a great opportunity for team-building activities that are fun, while at the same time helping teams to perform better together.
Done correctly, team-building activities, such as group competitions or games, can help to build strong connections and loyalty within your business, while at the same time making it more fun to work together.
5. Build a culture of active communication
No team can perform well without good communication. Likewise, it’s impossible to build up trust between team members without communication.
The responsibility of the management is, therefore, to ensure that there are strong communication channels available both at the level of individuals talking to each other and at the level of entire teams communicating in a group setting.
Secondly, effective and constant communication should be actively cultivated. Teach team members to reply immediately whenever they are contacted, even if they don’t have an answer ready, and to share updates regularly.
Conclusion
Building trust in dynamic teams requires both time and attention, but it’s well worth investing this effort, as it will lift your team’s performance from average to world-class if you get it right.
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