How do you measure trust in your team?
I just had the pleasure of listening to a great Metronomics podcast hosted by Ged Roberts and featuring Louis Retief, where he discusses some work we did together. (Thanks again Louis for the kind words!)
Louis said a beautiful thing: “You can’t measure trust, but you know instantly when it is missing.”
While he may be factually wrong , he is very right about the deeper truth – without trust, there is no… (Moulin Rouge, anyone?) …yeah, love, but also cohesion, accountability and performance. See Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and Table Group’s assessment of the same name, which is ultimately all about measuring trust.
First, the word Trust itself is loaded. “I don’t trust you” is a tough statement. It is also open to interpretation and therefore largely misinterpreted and misused.
Take, for example, this statement: “I don’t trust you to complete this project.” – Ouch, that hurts. But what does it mean? It can be any (and more) of the following:
“I don’t believe you have what it takes.”
“I don’t feel comfortable leaving this work in your hands and forgetting about it.”
“I don’t believe you can complete this given other priorities.”
“I think you’re not set up for success.”
“I don’t see you as reliable enough to give this project the attention it needs.”
“I believe you don’t know enough to do it right.”
And so on.
Some hurtful and/or productive feedback we can build on, resolve and grow from. Some comments around trust point at a deeper, underlying issue – that needs addressing.
Therefore, let’s try to limit use of the word “trust” in the true context most associate with this word- “I feel safe being vulnerable with you, because I can’t see you using my vulnerability against me.” If that sounds too touchy-feely for a workplace to you, don’t be fooled. Without vulnerability there is no asking for help when needed, without help when needed there is no (or slower) growth, and that hurts the relationship and the organization even more.
Trust really is the foundation of everything in a well functioning team. In Metronomics, we have the “Trust 2.0” concept, when the team is so comfortable nothing is off limits for discussion. Hitting this point means we can go deep when needed, and we can rely on each other to have the best interests of both the team and us personally in mind.
Does your team trust each other, and what are you doing to promote this trust?
