The Game Changing Habit of a Highly Motivated Team

At Agile, we work with clients who come to us seeking to be “effective” or “good.” Sometimes, effectiveness is equated to selling the most of a product, or achieving a strategic vision or plan. Other times, the elusive effectiveness is more related to team culture - that people feel good about working there. What is almost never discussed is that to get to any of these outcomes, individuals on a team have to have trust.

Research from MIT Sloan Management Review shows that when employees feel trusting of their peers, manager, and organization, they are 260% more motivated to work and are 50% less likely to look for another job. The kicker? One in four employees actually don’t trust their employer.

What is trust, really?

Let’s dive a little deeper here. Trust has two dimensions

• Character Trust

• Competence Trust

When we have Character Trust, we believe in the integrity, intent, and character of another person. When we have Competence Trust, we believe in the capabilities, skills, track record, and potential results of another person.

Competence Trust is what we usually think of when we think of our employees and work team, which makes sense…but it becomes problematic. When we over-rely on competence trust, sometimes called Predictive Trust, it’s too easy to maintain the status quo, or fall into group think.

Instead, we need to develop Character Trust, often called Vulnerability-Based Trust, among our team members. Vulnerability-based trust happens when humans on a team see one another as such, and are comfortable showing up authentically. They don’t pretend to know things they don’t, say things they don’t mean, or act in ways that go against their personal belief systems. Teams with vulnerability-based trust in place are open and genuine.

The case for trust

We like to look at Patrick Lencioni’s Five Habits of an Effective Team model to really make the case for trust. In Lencioni’s model, the five behaviors build on one another in a pyramid. The bottom of the pyramid, it’s very foundation, is the presence of trust. The absence of trust makes productive conflict among team members impossible, which then reduces commitment to the team and their work, leading to a lack of accountability to do the work, ultimately impeding the results of the team.

Put another way, if your team is acting without authentic, vulnerability-based trust, they will have a weak foundation. And it matters, because this leads to a lack of strong results, which hurts individuals - who feel unhappy and disinvested - as well as your organization - which isn’t getting the outcomes it needs from its people.

How do you know if trust exists on your team?

While just asking is great, if your employees don’t trust you, one another, or the organization, you may not get a straight answer to a simple query. When a team is lacking vulnerability-based trust, even if they look great on paper, you may see occurrences like:

• Your competitors are doing better, despite your perceived advantage

• Team meetings are not productive, or don’t lead to outcomes

• Team members do not share their ideas or critique perspectives, even when specifically invited to do so

• There is little debate on the team, or - if debate does exist - it is interpersonal and unproductive

• Team members avoid holding one another accountable

• Your team is toxically positive, with critiques and criticism not welcome

If trust is a problem on your team, you might not hear people admitting to needing help or to having growth areas. You might notice that team members don’t discuss their personal lives in detail or at all, or realize that you know little about them beyond their work product.

While all of these are cause for concern (and action!), building a workplace that allows vulnerability-based trust to blossom is absolutely possible, even if you’re currently far from the mark.

Want to learn more?

Stay tuned for part two of our trust-based series - how to cultivate habits of trust on your team - coming later this week! In addition, if you’re feeling stuck, we offer comprehensive training for teams and for managers to support them with building a