5 easy steps to build trust in your team

Which trait do you regard as the most valuable for a leader to detect in their team? Experience? Intelligence? Technical skills? Or perhaps creativity? All of these are valuable and relevant, but there is something even more important. According to Ranjay Gulati, a professor at Harvard Business School, being trustworthy is the essential attribute that makes valuable employees stand out.

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We’re talking about trust and the strategic contribution of trust to performance in any team. Being a trustworthy individual. Convincing others that they can count on you, no matter what. It makes sense. But what does it mean?

What is trust?

Although it seems like a no-brainer what trust is, we’re actually talking about two types of trust in the workplace — trust based on an individual’s character — “I trust your character that you will do what you say” and trust based on their skills — “I trust that you have the skills to find solutions”.

But we need to know that trust is a two-way street, because it’s not just employees who need trust, but managers too. In other words, when there is a sense of trust, both bosses and staff benefit, and the relationship between the two parties is more harmonious if trust is mutu

What do the studies say?

According to the Edelman Trust Barometer for 2024 — a survey of 32,000 people in 28 countries — “My Employer” enjoys the highest trust — 79% — compared to business in general (63%), non-governmental organisations (59%), government (51%) and the media (50%). Moreover, most employees in the world trust “My CEO” more than the citizens of the country they live in or their neighbours.

Source: 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer

The data confirms that trust is the attribute on which all professional relationships are built and the reason why they deliver results and performance. Trust is a fundamental component of a healthy working environment favourable to personal development and sustainable business growth.

Here’s an example I came across recently. I was working with a project team and although everyone was a top professional, the project was stalling. Why? Because the project manager didn’t trust his team. Trust is not just about believing that people will do their job well. It’s about giving them autonomy and confidence, i.e. giving them space to breathe, innovate and take initiative.

Trust is about building an environment where unintentional mistakes are seen as opportunities to learn and discover new information, not as reasons to punish. Lack of trust can lead to a toxic work environment where rumors and distrust undermine company goals, projects that stall, and low employee morale.

But how exactly do you build trust at work?

We’ve prepared five major ideas drawn from recent academic research.

1. Empathy works wonders in a team: Say a colleague seems upset. If you simply say, “Hey, you seem a little upset today” not only do you make him feel heard, but other colleagues will perceive you as a caring, trustworthy colleague. It seems that acknowledging the emotions of others is perceived as an act that requires effort. It’s easy to ignore a colleague who seems upset, but when you voluntarily and proactively acknowledge a colleague’s distress you’re basically communicating that you care enough to invest time and energy into the relationship.
2. It’s more effective to acknowledge negative emotions than positive ones: It has a greater impact to say to someone sad “You seem upset, is something wrong?” than to convey to a cheerful colleague “You seem happy today”. Paying attention to negative emotions takes more time and effort. But it is perceived as deeper and shows that you really care. Therefore, people are more likely to trust you if you are there for them especially when they are at their worst, not when they are doing great.
3. Focus on emotions, not situations: People appreciate it more when you directly acknowledge their emotions (“You seem upset”) than when you say something about the situation (“It sounds like the meeting went badly”). This way you validate your colleague’s internal feelings, making them feel seen and understood.
4. Notice the successes and the talent of others. You can build confidence by appreciating a colleague’s work. When you sincerely and consistently praise his methods and results, you convince him that you are an ally, not a threat.

Vulnerability is not a weakness, but a great asset. Especially when it comes to your manager, a certain kind of vulnerability can boost your confidence: acknowledging a mistake you’ve made and showing how you plan to act in the future produces major points of trust between the two of you.

So it is important to be a man of trust, but be very careful with trust, because it is fragile: it is hard won but easily lost. Many employees focus on skills and confidence based on skill, while neglecting confidence based on character and behaviour, even though it takes both to perform.

To build trust you need to be not only professionally skilled, but also empathetic and transparent in your interactions with others, making people feel seen, heard and respected. Trust is the essential condition for a team to function well, in the long term. And that requires not only being very good at what we do, but also being kind to each other.

Let’s remember this: be good not only in our profession, but also with those around us: that’s how we will win their trust and then win, together, all the matches and competitions in our professional lives.

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