High Performing Teams - Unbreakable Trust
The Characteristics of High Performing Teams - Part 6
If I can’t trust you, I don’t want to be around you. I certainly don’t want to try and win with you. High performing teams build a trust that’s unbreakable. That doesn’t mean they don’t make mistakes, or fail to live up to the teams standards. Every team has those issues. But they develop a trust that that is strong enough to overcome those issues for the best interests of the team.
Trust is developed through transparency. If you want your team to trust one another, they have to be able to trust you. Everything you do has to follow what you say. You have to model the behavior. Admit your mistakes. Be open about the why behind your decisions, and let them know when you screwed up. Once they realize they can trust you - and how important trust is to you - they’ll start to trust one another.
Creating a safe environment is a key to building trust. Your players have to know it’s okay to make mistakes. You want them to be comfortable taking risks, and not looking over their shoulder. A confident team is one that is not afraid to make plays. And that environment is up to you. If you are transparent about the decisions you make, and you take ownership of your mistakes, your players will do the same.
The challenge with developing a safe environment is it involves giving up control, and that is hard for a lot of leaders to do. You have to allow your players the chance to fail, and make them comfortable with taking risks. If they hear about it every time they make a mistake, the won’t be willing to take risks. If you blame them every time something goes wrong, they’ll start blaming others as well. Give them the chance to learn, to grow and to speak up, by giving them a chance to own their approach and make some mistakes.
Elite teams trust each other without fail. You can actually see it on the court - they way the sprint to help side, they way they block out, their willingness to share the ball. An unbreakable trust turns into the behaviors that win tough games, and it starts with the environment you establish.