[Alicia Davis] So if you watched our video last week, we were talking about how we build trust. And it was all about, how can we build trust by being trustworthy, right? So this week we want to talk about, okay, well, how do you build trust on a team and within a team? Right? Because, boy, do we hear that that it’s just so challenging sometimes for teams to really understand and trust each other, sometimes, right?

[Stacie Watson] Mm, hmm, yeah. So we thought we could talk a little bit about first, how do we notice if we have a trust issue – maybe trust has been damaged, or sometimes we might inherit a team or take on a new role and find out that there are trust issues. So we’re talking first about some just a couple of ways that we might just notice that we have a trust issue. And then we can share a couple of thoughts from a leader in a recent session about how she brought real intentionality to how she wanted to build trust on a new team that she had just started leading. But do you want to start us off talking about, how do we notice, or what might be a sign that we have a trust issue?

[Alicia Davis] Well, I think this came up in a session that we were facilitating a couple of weeks ago, excessive niceness. So you know, when people don’t feel like they have trust, they don’t necessarily open up, right? They don’t necessarily talk about what’s challenging to them or where they’re getting stuck, or even if they’re having an issue or a disagreement with a colleague, it’s just, you know, everything’s going okay. You know, no big deal. We gotta cover like a lot of generalities. And of course, we know that what that leads to is oftentimes things not getting done, right? Or not getting done with the variety of possible perspectives or input, right, to make it really effective. So that was, that’s certainly, that’s one of many ways, but that’s one that we heard recently come up in a team.

[Stacie Watson] Yeah, that comes up not that infrequently, and I think because so many of the leaders we work with and teams we work with are nonprofit organizations, you know, come from nonprofit organizations, it makes sense that, you know, you have a lot of people who are really wanting to help and wanting to make a difference, and so that we bring a little bit of that niceness into the work that we do, which makes sense. It’s just making space for there to be a difference of opinion or disagreement can really help the team arrive at a better solution or a better outcome.

[Alicia Davis] That’s right. That’s right. That’s right.

[Stacie Watson] Well, you know, I was with a group a week or so ago, and we were talking about this topic of trust, and one of the leaders there had recently, in the last year or so, inherited a team, or sort of moved into a leadership role of a team, and what she found out was that on that team there was a history of the prior leader not sharing information equally. So there was sort of this, like inner circle of people that got information, but other people on the team didn’t. And so, of course, it had led to a lot of mistrust among the team members.

[Alicia Davis] Absolutely.

[Stacie Watson] Once she sort of figured out that that was an issue, she was very intentional and deliberate about trying to make sure when she could share information she was as transparent as possible, and she also tried to share the information equally, meaning everyone was getting the same information, maybe not at the same time, sometimes that didn’t work, but whenever it was getting shared, it was consistent. And she said it took a few months, but over time, people began to understand that her style was very different, and she started seeing more trust being built because of her actions as the leader. And I thought that’s kind of inspiring.

[Alicia Davis]
Well, and I think it just really speaks to it’s about consistency and repetition, and it’s about habits and patterns, and when trust has been broken, it takes some time, right? So, yeah, give it that time and intentionality and specificity and and you do then begin to see the change happen. And so…

[Stacie Watson]
That’s right.

[Alicia Davis] … you know, we would love to support you if you’re having any kind of challenges or questions or thoughts about trust, feel free to reach out to us. Info at TLS transforms.com, and Alicia Davis…

[Stacie Watson] I’m Stacie Watson…

[Alicia Davis] And thanks so much for listening. Talk to you soon.

[Stacie Watson] Thank you.