The Importance of Trust in Teamwork

Creating secure and trusting relationships with your team.

Have you ever taken part in one of those team-building exercises that involves a “trust fall”? In the trust fall, you allow yourself to fall backwards whilst relying on other members of your group to catch you. And if they don’t catch you, well, it’s going to hurt.

In the APA Dictionary of Psychology, trust is defined as “reliance on or confidence in the dependability of someone or something” and is considered to be a primary component in the relationships we have with others in every area of our lives. So it makes sense that having a secure and trusting relationship with your team members is essential for you to perform at your best in the workplace. And to, you know, to stop you falling on your backside.

Teamwork in the Workplace

Dating right back to our ancestors, humans have best survived by working in teams, and it is commonly believed that we are stronger together. Working with others encourages us to focus on the collective goals of the group rather than our own personal interests. But the key to creating a team that can work together in this way is to develop trust.

In order to build this trust, members must feel empowered to be open about their ideas and opinions without feeling vulnerable or uncertain about the reactions of their peers. This allows for healthy and authentic collaboration where members can openly share their own perspectives and debate their differences in order to produce high-quality results in their work. However, when trust in other team members is lacking, the doubt and vulnerability that comes with that distrust can cause members to only look after №1 and focus solely on their own survival within the team.

This perceived lack of support can lead people to retreat into the background and hesitate to share their thoughts and ideas in fear of criticism from other team members, which ultimately leads to a drop in the overall performance of the team itself.

Distrust within a team can result in the suspicion of hidden agendas, micromanagement, miscommunication, and failure to meet expectations on all levels. A 2016 meta-analysis by Bart de Jong studied the relationship between the levels of trust within a team and its overall performance and concluded that the degree to which team members trust each other does make a difference. The results of the study indicated that people work best in high-trust environments where they feel a sense of belonging within a team and are invested in the success of the team as a result.

When colleagues are clear on what is expected of them and feel confident and secure in their abilities and the abilities of other team members, they are more inclined to be innovative by taking risks and thinking outside the box. It makes sense when you think about it; it’s much easier to risk making mistakes when you know you’ll be supported by your peers regardless of the outcome. This encourages collaboration within the team and allows each member to share information and truly leverage the abilities of others in their work without feeling threatened.

Building a Cohesive Team

Now that we know that teamwork is important in the workplace, how do we ensure the group of people we have working together are actually working cohesively as a team? Simply working alongside others doesn’t equate to working as a part of a team. Real teamwork is achieved through clear communication, collaboration, and shared goals.

“At a minimum, a team should be a cooperative unit and, at its best, a team is a collaborative unit.” “ — Marcia Hughes, Author of The Emotionally Intelligent Team.

The importance of team cooperation and collaboration has been demonstrated many times over the years in a number of studies. A 2009 study of software development projects assessed the importance of team familiarity and found that the average number of times each team member worked together was a better predictor of project success than the combined experience of the individual team members. Many years before this, in 1986, a study of the U.S National Aeronautics and Space Administration placed fatigued crews under simulated pressure to measure their effectiveness. The results showed that the number of errors made was significantly reduced in crews who had flown together previously than in crews who had never flown together before.

The TESI Core Components of Successful Teamwork

The Team Emotional and Social Intelligence Survey is a scientifically validated assessment of team performance that helps companies to create a strategy to improve this performance where needed. The 7 Core Skills Measured by TESI are:

1. Team identity: the pride each member feels from being a part of the team and how connected they feel to others in the team. A team with a strong identity will thrive by members having a sense of belonging and self-assurance of their roles within the team. This lends itself to a strong sense of loyalty within the team which further cements the crucial trust element.
2. Motivation: how equipped the team is to generate and sustain the energy needed to get work completed successfully and on time. In order to have and maintain motivation within a team, it’s important to be aware of each member’s wants and needs alongside setting clear and concise goals to pave the way for their success.
3. Emotional awareness: how well team members value and accept each other. Each member of the team should be aware of and endeavor to understand where their colleagues are coming from even in more contentious discussions. This awareness is essential in order for the team to stay productive and motivated, and to collaborate successfully.
4. Communication: how well team members listen, encourage participation, share information and discuss sensitive matters. A lack of clear communication within a team will lead to a myriad of issues including a lack of trust in other members.
5. Stress tolerance: how well the team understands stress factors and the intensity impacting each member and the team as a whole. A team with a healthy stress tolerance will be aware of its workload and focus on maintaining a healthy work/life balance for all members.
6. Conflict resolution: how willing the team is to engage in conflict openly and constructively. When a team no longer gets stuck in conflict situations on a daily basis, it has the freedom to be more productive and creative and will simply get more done.
7. Positive mood: how stable the positive attitude of the team is in general and when under pressure. This positive attitude can be developed with some humor, ongoing encouragement, and the reinforcement of the “can-do” attitude that is so cheesy it pains me to write it, but still holds true!

Empower Your Team Today

Positive psychology has promoted the many benefits of community and building social relationships/connections for years and its importance in the business world cannot be denied now either.

By placing a strong emphasis on the importance of trust within your team you can ensure that both your team members and your business as a whole will thrive. It might take a bit more than a few trust fall exercises to get there, but this post will give you an excellent starting point to work from.

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