Building trust has become one of those overused phrases that has lost its specific meaning when it comes to leadership teams. However, it’s a critical discipline for effective leadership teams, and as such is the foundational layer on the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team model by Patrick Lencioni.
To strip back what we mean when we say we want to build trust, it’s best to be clear on the WHY?
The reason to build trust is to enable robust challenge, feedback and accountability in the team without team members being concerned about any negative impact on the relationships in the team.
And this, specifically, boils down to a trust in intentions and judgement.
It looks like this:
- “Trust that I can challenge you, give you feedback and hold you accountable without it damaging our relationships” (“I need you to trust my intention”)
- “Trust than when you do the same to me you are doing it from a place of genuine desire for organisational over personal success and it’s not a personal attack” (“I need to trust your intention”)
- “Trust that if I admit a mistake, ask for help, admit a failing or uncertainty that I will not be judged negatively”
It’s so important to get a level of trust in intention because without it we get into defensive mode as soon as we are challenged, and when we are feeling defensive we are not in a position to take in other points of view and learn from them.
A leadership team can’t make the best decisions if members are not open to having their views challenged and being comfortable challenging each other’s views. To help leaders trust each other’s intentions they need to understand why they each behave the way they do. To dig into this I take a dual approach using personal values and personality preferences, which I have covered here.
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