This networking principle sets high-performing teams apart from others.

Jerlin Huang
The Innovation Market
5 min readApr 28, 2021

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Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Practices that allow effective trust-building in teams often distinguish high-performing teams from their less successful contemporaries.

There are two forms of trust:

  1. Competence-based Trust — Trust that allows people to respect your opinion and insights, and want to learn from you.
  2. Benevolence-based Trust — Trust that is foundational to innovation and effective collaboration.

Without competence-based trusttrust that you are able to do what you say you can do — people do not value the feedback and insights that they receive from you and so they do not bother to share their ideas.

Without benevolence-based trusttrust that you have my best interests in mind — people are reluctant to put forth and debate new or different ideas and perspectives.

Energisers are people who create enthusiasm in part because they engage in a set of foundational behaviours that build trust. When you interact with an energiser, you don’t have to worry that you will be judged, dismissed, or devalued. Without a fear of rejection, it is easier to share fledgling ideas or novel plans — to innovate, take risks, and think big. Energisers create trust, but trust isn’t all that they create.

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