Building Trust for a Successful Team: A Leader’s Guide

In a recent episode with Mitchell Levy of Credibility Nation, we discussed the critical nature of credibility and integrity in leaders, and trust was the foundation of that. It lays the groundwork of any successful relationship. So I have to ask, how much trust would your team say they have in you? And what would that mean to your business if the answer is not enough? Trust in corporate settings is critical because it forms the foundation for effective relationships, collaboration, and organizational success. Without trust, even the most well-constructed strategies and systems can fail due to poor execution, low morale, and fractured relationships. A survey by PwC revealed that while 86% of executives believe employee trust is high, only 67% of employees share this sentiment, which then indicates that there is a notable trust gap in the organization. The impact? Low job satisfaction, employee engagement, and diminished organizational commitment, often resulting in you and your team not achieving your goals. Or if you are accomplishing them, it's at a cost to your people's morale, and loyalty to you and the business. So this is what I want to discuss today. I want us to discuss the challenges leaders have in building trust and the benefits of a high-trust culture. And lastly, actionable strategies that you can start acting on today to elevate the trust your people have in you and the business. So all of this is to ensure that you are a powerhouse leader at work and in your life. Let's dive in.

Welcome to Shedding the Corporate Bitch, the podcast that transforms today's managers into tomorrow's powerhouse leaders. Your host, Bernadette Boas, executive coach and author, brings you into a world where the corporate grind meets personal growth and success in each and every episode. With more than 25 years in corporate trenches, Bernadette's own journey from being dismissed as a tyrant boss to becoming a sought-after leadership coach and speaker illustrates the very essence of transformation that she now inspires in others with her tips, strategies, and stories. So if you're ready to shed the bitches of fear and insecurity, ditch the imposter syndrome, and step into the role of the powerhouse leader you were born to be, this podcast is for you. Let's do this.

As we get into this conversation about trust, I want you to think about the last individual whose trust was either broken or you really never had a deep level of trust for that individual. What did that feel like? What was the experience this individual was creating for you? And more importantly, how did it affect how you showed up each and every day for this person? Now, it could be at work or at home, but let's also focus on at the workplace. Especially if it's someone who is your manager or someone in the organization that you would expect is someone that is trustworthy, that anyone would want to follow, be loyal to, and show up for. All right, I can think of two past managers that I had had that really didn't break my trust, but more so the latter that I'd mentioned, they they never really gained my full trust in them. Because when I first showed up in this particular job working for this individual, I, I noticed, I observed this person openly disparaging other people in the organization and didn't have any, you know, biases toward who it would be, whether it was their peer, their boss, employees, it didn't matter. You would openly hear this individual talking negatively, talking poorly about someone else in the organization. Well, that's not a behavior you would expect from a leader. At the same time, the same individual had a habit of, I'll call it stretching the truth, but it was more flat-out lying, especially when they were put up against the wall. For a mistake or a bad decision or something just going astray. And they would not only deflect to someone else, but they would actually put the blame on someone else. When ultimately, as a leader, you trust them that regardless of what their team might do or how they perform, they have your back. They're going to support you. They're going to come to you. Lack of accountability from from a leader is also something that would erode trust amongst team members. If, if a leader who is in their position and is the first line of accountability, not only of themselves, but of their team members, of their, even their peers, you know, it is expected that they are going to hold individuals' performance accountable. And when they don't do that, that also creates a degree of distrust in the people around them. But this individual, getting back to him, this individual just immediately for me threw up the flags of be careful, be careful what you say, be careful what you do, ensure that they are, you know, aware of what you're doing, but at the same time, don't give them any ammunition. That was my experience. Think about that. What kind of environment does that create? What type of culture is that creating? Not only for me, the individual, but for the team and for the business. And then I had another manager who really did not know how to connect and relate to their team members. And therefore, they absolutely did not know how to coach, develop, and grow and get their individuals advanced, or even get them to accomplish their goals that they've laid out as a result. Therefore, because they didn't know how to do any of those things, they stood over us. They questioned everything that we were doing. They challenged everything or how we were going about everything. And again, that caused me to kind of say, wait a minute, you hired me for a reason. You hired me for certain skills and talents and experience and expertise that I have. I am very qualified and therefore you should be trusting me. And I'm feeling this weight of not being trusted. And that in itself is also just a, just an ugly feeling and an ugly experience to live in, whether that's for a day, a week, a month, or for years. And granted, a lot of people, including myself, they tolerate it. What's even more discouraging is when the company supports it. The company doesn't take accountability for it, for, for a leader's behavior, let alone their performance. And accepts it because that's what it is. Silence is acceptance. So they accept it. And that raises even more flags around not trusting, not only in this case the individual, but also the company as a whole. Because if they're not going to do something and they therefore find it acceptable for whatever reasons they have, well, how do you trust then that should you need them, should you have an issue or challenge yourself, and you need to feel as if you're— someone's going to have your back and they're going to step in when you need them to, well, that trust goes right out the window. And according to PwC, a study that they had done, 55% of CEOs believe that a lack of trust is definitely detrimental to the organization's success. And yet, why don't they handle it? What are the challenges that the leaders are having in building trust at all levels of an organization? And that's what I want us to walk through and to really understand and then figure out, OK, what are the things that we could be doing to build trust, to minimize this disgruntled workplace that we have and really foster a trust-based culture? So the first big challenge was put on all of us back in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, and that is the whole dynamic of remote and even hybrid work environments. We were all forced to go home, the boss and all of its team members. And the next thing you know, even as opposed to being able to check in and being able to oversee and being able to be an arm's length away from their team members, to ensure that they're doing the work, they're doing it the way they need to, they're doing it on time, so forth and so on. Well, now there's this huge barrier, that being the fact that they're not in a close proximity to them. What the pandemic did, and 100% going remote, was all of a sudden it put a spotlight on those individuals who really had an issue in trusting their people that they're showing up, in their pajamas maybe, but they're showing up, they're doing the work, they're doing it the way they need it to be done. And so not only is the manager building up this distrust level in their people, whether they feel it's grounded or not, but the team members are all of a sudden feeling very unappreciated, very challenged, very disvalued, I'll call it, because now they're, they're saying to themselves, they hired me for a reason. They hired me for my skills and my talents and my expertise and experience. Why are they standing over me questioning everything that I'm doing, challenging everything that I'm doing as a result of just simply the fact that we're not in the same proximity? And that in itself will create a very disloyal, a very disengaged and unconnected employee when their manager is constantly micromanaging them, constantly questioning them and challenging them. It creates a workplace, even remotely, that the employees start questioning whether or not this is the right place, the right manager that they want to be working for. And all of a sudden loyalty and satisfaction and commitment to the team and the company starts getting eroded. And so it's really critical that leaders, true leaders, find a way to question themselves around their degree of trust in their people. And you could simply look at the skills, the talents, the expertise, and the experience of your team members to kind of say, you know, do they have what, what it takes for them to accomplish what it is I need them to do? And therefore, I don't need to be standing over them. And yet you could have individuals who need coaching, who need skill development, who need more experience and more expertise. Therefore, you then just find a solution to what you need to do in order to uplevel them, so to speak. And you can kind of let them go, just like a parent to a child, let them go and let them fly, let them make mistakes, let them even fail. And yet you're there to have their, to have their back and give them what they need in order for everyone to accomplish their goals. Now, another big challenge leaders have in really building trust is many of them are not experienced in managing cross-cultural teams, diverse teams, whether that be gender, age, geographic, religious, whatever the dynamic might be. Many managers don't have the experience of really meeting their individual team members where they are, understanding what it is that they need, what it is that's going to take them to accomplish the goals, and therefore provide it to them. They don't have that degree of leadership. That will create some major clashes if you don't respect and you don't trust in what it is that they're doing or how they go about it, even in their own communication, as a result of cultural differences, belief differences, overall view differences, style differences, how they go about doing work. For example, I have one client who struggles to really meet each individual on their team where they are in that Certain people have different styles of going about the same thing. So, you know, a group of 3 or 4 employees could be tasked to do the same work, and yet one of the 4 do it very differently but accomplish the same goal, but they just go about it differently. So this manager was having a very difficult time because he wanted them doing it exactly the way the others were doing it. And yet the challenge that has to happen, the conversation that has to happen, the, the coaching that has to happen is to say, if the end goal is met, does it matter how they got there? Is it really about the journey or is it about the destination? Is it about even if they accomplished it all in the same timeframe, same quality of work, maybe even better, doesn't matter how they go about doing it. Because if you truly want to trust your people and build a trust-based culture, then you have to trust the fact that different styles are going to go about things in different ways. And the only concern a leader should have is that the end goal is met, and it's met on time, maybe on budget, so forth and so on. And so that will get individuals and teams very dysfunctional if their manager is forcing them into a standard that just doesn't resonate with their own style and their own way of going about things. And we have to appreciate that. We have to respect that. I had a boss in my mid to late 20s, and she had this unbelievable ability to meet her individual team members where they were. We'd be in a room, there'd be about 7 of us as buyers. I was a buyer at the time. And she'd sit behind her big desk. And every one of us were very different in how we go about things. Some of us needed to be stroked. Some of us need to be kind of told or directed what to do. Some of us were like, just give me the assignment and I'm off and I'm doing it. And then some of us were very process-driven and some of us were very creative. And Nikki had this way of talking to each individual about what it was that she was delegating to them and adjusting her style, her approach, her words, and her requirements and expectations as a result. And so she'd come to me and she'd just give me the assignment and she knew that I'd figure it out and get it done. She'd come to Annie And she knew that required a little bit more soft pedaling and a little bit more explanation. She'd come to JAN, and she would make sure that JAN had the opportunity to walk through every step that needed to happen in order to get the job done, because she's very process-oriented. She just had this beautiful way of really meeting each individual where they are. Talk about building trust. She built trust in us that she knew exactly what we needed in order to grow and develop and advance. She, you know, was respectful in doing it. She had our backs. Trust. Another element and a reason why many cultures suffer in building trust is because there's just not really good, clear detailed communication, transparent, authentic communication with their people. It's one thing to have a big vision and mission. At the same time, if it's not trickled down to team members understanding what it is that their team is tasked to do and accomplish those big, those goals, that charter, so to speak, and yet they hold it to themselves. They don't communicate it. Down to their team members. So the team members kind of are waffling, trying to figure out what the expectations are, what the goals or measurements are, what the tasks specifically are, because it's not clearly and consistently communicated to them. They're pretty much left in the dark because their manager has this control issue and/or they have a lack of trust in their people. They even say, oh, they don't need to understand this. They don't need to know this. I just need them to do the job. And their people are like, wait a minute, if we don't have an understanding of what it is we're expected to do, when we're expected to do it, why we are doing it, then how do I trust my leader to be able to support me pursuing and achieving that goal? And so beyond, you know, the cultural differences and beyond the challenge that leaders have working with remote or hybrid teams, there's lack of really clear, thorough, consistent, transparent communication is a trust killer in people. From your employees to the leaders, trust is going to be very difficult to build if they're not even involved in the vision of the team or the organization. And according to Salesforce, 86% of employees cite ineffective communication as a major reason for workplace failures. 86%. So if that's the case, then wouldn't you want to ensure that your communication between yourself and your employees are very thorough, very effective, and very consistent. Now, lastly, and this one hits home for me personally because I failed to do this for many, many, many years as a corporate leader, and that is many leaders are reluctant to be vulnerable. They see it as weakness. They see it as being soft. And vulnerability means They never open themselves up to their, their people. They never go to that next level. They care about their people, but they don't care about them enough to really reveal themselves to their people. So what do I mean by that? Well, like I said, I failed miserably at this as a corporate leader. I felt as if, you know, they don't need to know about me personally. I'm certainly not going to admit my mistakes and my failings to them because that'll make me look weak and small and not this powerful person I was trying to come off as and to convey to them. Therefore, they never really connected with me. They never truly bonded and entrust with me because I created this wall between myself and them. By not sharing the fact that I've been where you are, I've screwed up, I've made mistakes, I've had a challenge trying to get where I am for whatever reason that may be. I'm scared of blah, blah, blah. Those type of disclosures of vulnerabilities really help the, you know, your team members to say, Wow. Okay. If they've done that and they've overcome that, then I can too. Or wow, if they're— they also were here, now they're here. I can do the same. It's just you being vulnerable with your team members breaks down any type of resistance in connecting with you and relating with you in really trusting you to support them and to have their back and to give them what it is that they need in order to be successful. Simply by sharing yourself with your team members, giving them the experiences that you've had, giving them the strategies and the ways you went about dealing with an issue or overcoming an issue or pursuing a goal and maybe screwing up along the way. Then you— then they can kind of say, okay, well, wait a minute. So I might run into these same scenarios and I'll be okay. I'll be successful. But more so, wow, they're human. She's human. He's human. And you know, because in my day, I operated as if I was a robot. No one was going to get under my skin. No one was going to realize the fears and the insecurities and the intimidations that I felt within myself. There was no way. And yet today, you know, I speak on platforms and write and here with you, and I'll share anything that anybody asks me about because you know what? We're all human. We all have successes. We all have failures. We all have, you know, great experiences. We all have crappy experiences. And that is what makes a good, strong, empowered powerhouse leader is letting them know that you're human and letting them connect with you on a level that's just not about the assignment. What are the benefits of a high-trust team culture? We've talked about some of them— job satisfaction, morale, loyalty, commitment. But let me give you some statistics because as leaders, we all want something that we can measure and put up against what it is that we're trying to accomplish. So according to a Harvard Business Review, organizations with a high level of trust experience 50% higher employee productivity. Now, I've reported to you over the last number of episodes, some of the work that I did last year around manager effectiveness and employee effectiveness, and the impact of low manager effectiveness has on employee satisfaction, employee productivity, employee effectiveness. And a lot of that came out of a degree of trust that they have with their managers. But if you could get 50% improved employee productivity, wouldn't you want to really focus on what are my breakdowns, what are my blind spots when it comes to building trust between me and my people? All right. The next benefit would be, of course, if you have a trusting relationship amongst your team members and yourself, then collaboration, even conflict management becomes so much more effective and actually easy and more productive as well. Because if we trust each other, then we're willing to open up, challenge each other, debate, get creative and innovative with each other. We're even able to hold each other accountable as a result of the fact that we trust that you're going to accept what it is that I have to say. You're going to consider my views, my opinions, my beliefs. You're going to kind of challenge whatever it is that I might be bringing up, but I'm going to receive it openly. And, and it's going to be done in a respectful way. Way. That's what happens when you have a trust-based culture. And so Google's Project Aristotle is a perfect example of how this can work and how it can work very effectively. So they found that psychological safety was critical within their work environment. And psychological safety is a huge, huge element of trust. In order for individuals to feel safe in the work environment, feel safe bringing up issues and disagreements and challenges, whether it's peer-to-peer or even with a boss, then that is what makes a very effective, very trust-based team. And they also found— Google, that is— they also found that trust as a part of psychological safety was the number one factor for their team success. When the trust level went down and people didn't feel safe in following or responding or challenging team members, let alone management, then things started breaking apart. And so if you really want to consider one thing to really start paying attention to and focusing on when it comes to trust, it's that ability to collaborate, even to handle conflicts amongst team members. All right. And then lastly, of course, if you have a trust-based environment where, where everyone feels safe, everyone feels creative, everyone feels as if they're valued and respected and they're contributing, then of course, that's going to reduce turnover. It's going to increase retention, reduce turnover, and really create higher employee, let alone customer loyalty. And employees are 76% more likely to stay with a company that they really trust. And not just the company as a whole, the senior leadership, the individual that they work for, and their peers. Trust is that foundation of a high-functioning team. And if you're familiar at all with Patrick Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, you'll know that trust is that basis, that foundation of a highly functioning team. And therefore, without trust, you can't have your team members productively dealing with conflict, holding each other accountable, making a commitment to the team and the goals of the team and the business, and then to all really focus on driving toward those results and not having their own individual agendas. Trust is team. Trust is leadership. Trust is business. And without it, you're not going to have the success that you and the team are looking for. Now, of course, there are financial implications of a trust-based culture, or lack thereof, as well. And that is companies with high employee engagement fostered by trust experience better financial performance. For instance, high engagement firms reported an earnings share growth rate of 28% compared to an 11.2% decline in low engagement firms. So again, you know, along with 50% improvement in productivity and employee satisfaction, highly engaged firms earning a growth rate of 28% is by far significant reasons or powerful reasons for really focusing on building a trust-based culture. All right. So let's discuss what it is that you could start doing today in order to focus on it, assess the gap that may exist currently, and then really building that type of culture that you're looking for. So the first would be start leading with authenticity and vulnerability. Start looking for places where you could be really sharing your journey, your story, your mistakes, your successes, your failures. Just start looking for those pockets of communications, of collaborations with team members one-on-one, or as the team as a whole and really start opening up and letting them in and letting them get to know you. That'll be a game changer when it comes to building trust. Again, remember, you caring about your team's well-being is huge, is a gold star, so to speak, but it's not enough. What they're looking for is for you not only to care about them, but you to connect with them in a way that they can relate to you and they know that you're human and that you're you've dealt with the same things that they're dealing with, whether they're highs or lows. Another element of vulnerability is creating an environment, a psychologically safe environment, if you want to look at it that way, where people can challenge one another, people can raise issues, people can come to you with very difficult communications or conversations that they need to have. Maybe it's even about your own performance. They need to feel safe with each other as well as with you to really open up and not hold back. And according to Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, great teams do not hold back with one another. They challenge each other. They ask each other questions to get more creative and innovative. They hold each other accountable, so forth and so on. Strategy number 2 would be around solving the problem of ineffective communications, and that is Really establish clear goals and expectations for your teams. If you have a vision or a charter for your team, or even passed down from the organization, make sure that they're communicated that. Make sure that they're on board with that. Make sure that they understand it and they understand why they're doing what they're doing. That's probably right up there in the top 5 things that I'm told that employees have a real struggle with their managers because they don't tell me why. It is I'm doing what I'm doing, why it is that this goal or this initiative or this decision is important. So make sure that you are, you know, taking care of those easy gaps. And because it will result in much higher trust levels between you and your employees. And according to Gallup, employees are 23% more likely to trust leaders who communicate expectations clearly. So again, we have 50% increase in productivity. We have improvement in, in retention and turnover. And one example of this is I had a client who was really struggling to build that trust, to build that bond with their team members. And therefore, what they started doing is, apart from the weekly meetings that they were having, they also then had monthly kind of like lunch and learns or brainstorming sessions. They would bring the team together and he would throw out a question to them to kind of provoke conversation, even challenging or uncomfortable conversations, and working slowly but surely over those monthly sessions to break down everybody's insecurities and fears of being vulnerable with one another, of trusting one another, and really getting them to the point where they can have very lively, very productive conflict sessions or challenge sessions. You name it what you want, but getting them to the point where they were okay with making sure that people are held accountable, making sure that they raise up their disagreements, making sure that they are heard if they feel that they're not, so forth and so on. And so get creative when it comes to finding ways to really open up the lines of communication between you and your team, knowing that you can get all these great results of increased productivity, improved retention, improved employee morale, improved trust levels between you and your team members and between themselves. There's so many benefits as a result of really building a trust-based culture that you're going to want to get very creative. And just one at a time, one small step at a time. And another way of doing that is our last strategy. And that would be really consider what you could be doing around recognizing or rewarding individuals for the contributions that they're making. For, for even the challenge they've overcome, or the fact that how they handled a screw-up or a mistake. It doesn't always have to be about great performance. It could also be about just leveling up a skill that they had, confronting an issue that they really didn't want to confront. It could be really about all the different behaviors or changes that your team members are making. Doesn't have to be just about whether or not someone accomplished a task that they were supposed to be doing and they went went over and above. So again, get creative in how you could be recognizing and rewarding, because in doing so, it tells your team members, wow, they're paying attention. They recognize the value I'm bringing, or the challenge that I face and that I overcame. They are seeing me and hearing me and respecting me enough to where they're recognizing and rewarding me. Recognition done the right way and the authentic way can go a long way when it comes to building trust. And according to Sherm, 69% of employees feel that recognition or being recognized would have them want to work harder. Get creative, find small ways and important ways, relevant ways, authentic ways to recognize and reward your team members. It will go so far in you building trust with them. So as we close out this episode and this critical topic of trust, we talked about the challenges that leaders have in building trust, and that was the remote or hybrid work environment, cultural differences or ineffective communications, and as well the lack of vulnerability by leaders in the workplace. We talked about the benefits of really focusing on building a trust-based culture within your team, within the organization. Everything from increased productivity, increased retention, increased employee loyalty and effectiveness, and a number of other things. Even the financial, the business metrics of improving earnings per share. Oh yeah, yeah. And the actions you could be taking. Lead with vulnerability, lead with you, lead with self, so to speak. Set clear expectations, communicate them very, very clearly, and then reward and recognize your individuals and recognize even the trust building that you're accomplishing across your team. Small steps lead to big results. And so even of those three, Pick one of the three. Start with leading your vulnerability or setting clear expectations if you're not real comfortable yet with kind of opening yourself up. And then even consider what type of reward or recognition can I put into place. It doesn't have to be official. It doesn't have to be grandiose. Just something for your people to feel as if, you know what, he or she is paying attention. They recognize my contribution. They recognize my overcoming and my succeeding, and they value my part on this team that I play. Steve Covey comments that trust is the glue of life. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships. And think about it. Do you have relationships that you don't trust? And if so, do you really hold on to them, or do you keep them at a distance, especially if you can't get rid of them? But do you keep them at a distance, or do you even walk away from them? Trust is that glue that holds individuals, that holds humans together. And so whatever you can do to ensure that you understand where that trust level exists between you and your team members, that's also a critical first step you could take is to assess that and get an understanding of the issues or the opportunities, the gaps, the blind spots, the challenges, and then work your way into finding or using any one of these strategies that we discussed to then move forward and really start building that trust-based culture. Now, if you want any support in regards to assessing the level of trust your team has or really addressing and implementing any of these strategies that we talked about, then don't hesitate to reach out and let's have a conversation. You can go to coachmebernadette.com/discoverycall, and I will get you on the right path to really being that powerhouse leader of a trust-based team and culture. Thanks for tuning in this week to Shedding the Corporate Bitch. And if you found value in this episode, then please be sure to share it with your colleagues, with your team members, and with others. And leave us a review so we know the type of guests that you'd like to hear from and the topics that are critical to you being a powerhouse leader. Thanks. Bye.

Thank you for tuning in to today's episode of Shedding the Corporate Bitch. Every journey taken together is another step towards unleashing the powerhouse leader within you. Don't miss any of our weekly episodes. Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you love to listen. And for those who thrive on visual content, catch us on our Shedding the Bitch YouTube channel. Wanna dive deeper with Bernadette on becoming a powerhouse leader? Visit balloffirecoaching.com to learn more about how she helps professionals, HR executives, and team leaders elevate overall team performance. Comments. You've been listening to Shedding the Corporate Bitch with Bernadette Boas. Until next time, keep shedding, keep growing, and keep leading.