When I set out the write this series of blog’s relating to the formation of high performing teams I set myself a goal of writing a blog post each month for 6 months. Now, fast forward 4 months and I have written and posted 3 blogs. For those keeping score at home I’m one behind my own schedule. No big deal right? After all, I have 3 children under 6, October was a busy period with our AltusQ National Conference in Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and really excitedly I have been very busy with clients and building relationships.

Here’s the problem, I openly shared with a couple of my colleagues that I would be posting monthly and that you can call me on that. Now, they haven’t called me out, they are busy enough, and even if they had noticed they would understand my constraints. To me this is a great example of how easily we can chip away at trust, and a core element of trust, reliability. Does one missed post make me unreliable? No. But it is a sign and the start to a slippery slope downhill. I am a strong believer that we are what we repeatedly do. If we are consistent in how we respond to different circumstances then we are reliably known for a certain response.

Building trust is a difficult and slow process which is magnified when working with teams. Paradoxically, trust is quickly lost. To understand this in simple terms that help me move forward, there are four practical elements to trust, three of those build trust and one of those destroys it:

+ve Reliability: what we are known for? what do we consistently do?

+ve Credibility: how believable are we?

+ve Care: on a personal level how much does this person care about another?

-ve Self Interest: is the person concerned only for their own outcomes, gain or interest?

If teams are to build trust between team members, a focus on reliability, credibility and care will drive trust up. An environment that enables self-interest at the cost of the team will suffer a trust decline.

Ask yourself the following;

What am I known for? How do I inspire belief in others? How do I show people I care about them? If you are feeling brave, ask your team members to answer these questions about you.

This blog is the third part in a series, by clicking here you can find Part 1 and Part 2 on Building High Performing Teams.

To ensure you get access to the full series please like, share and connect, alternately if you would like to start a conversation about building trust in your team I would love to hear from you, chris.spinks@altusq.com.au