Holding a management position in your workplace comes with its challenges, especially if your working relationships don’t have a solid foundation of trust.
When you’re managing a team of people, building trust is crucial. Everyone will work more effectively if they trust each other and you as their leader. Let’s take a look at six key ways that you can build trust in your team.
You can’t expect your team to trust each other if you don’t trust them, so ensure that you are leading by example. It’s important that you display trust in your working relationships with your own boss, your colleagues and your team members.
Try to ensure that your team actually know each other. Ask them about their life outside of work, their hobbies, interests and family, and make sure that you share some of your own personal information as well. A great way to initiate team bonding is to organise team activities, days out and socialising events. This really gives your team members the opportunity to relax and get to know each other, which will translate into better working relationships back in the office.
Honesty is key to building trust. You should be open with your team and avoid telling even small lies or twisting the truth.
You should equip your team with the knowledge and skills they need in order to communicate well with each other. If they can understand and appreciate each other’s working styles and communication methods then they will be able to adjust their approaches in order to work better as a team. Psychometric tests are a great method of helping your team understand the different personalities in your workplace.
Do what you say you will do and keep your promises to ensure that you retain your team’s trust. Being on time for work and meetings also displays consistency.
When working as part of a team, mistakes and disappointments do happen but it’s important not to focus on who is to blame. Instead, you should encourage your team to think constructively and focus on ways everyone can contribute to fixing the problem and moving forward together. You could also discuss how best to avoid such mistakes in the future.
Are you looking to expand your team? Get in touch with us today to see how we can help.
