3 Building Blocks For High Trust
How would your team culture score if rated out of 10? (10 being high)
What basis do you have for that score and would your team agree, or at least be close?
What did you consider when you were trying to work out what would be a fair score for your culture?
The culture of teams is a much written about, discussed and bandied around topic. The reason being is the profound impact that culture has on organisational effectiveness and results. It impacts recruitment, retention, productivity & profitability levels, it is reflected in online reviews, customer satisfaction scores and so much more. While it is easy to say that one should ensure their team culture is strong and healthy, it is not necessarily easy to do.
Over the years I have found that businesses with a strong culture have three things in common and these make a great starting point when considering how you might improve your culture.
1. There is clarity of vision, values and people understand why the organisation exists. Your values, mission (your “Why”) and vision, attracts and holds people who feel aligned with what you stand for. When the standards a business operates by are dictated by the company values and these are held, believed in and lived it creates a common understanding and sense of safety. In great cultures if you take action in line with company values aiming to achieve the company vision it is impossible to make a wrong decision. It might not be the best decision, but it won't be wrong and you know you will be fully backed by the owners, leaders and managers of the business.
2. There is a focus on developing people. Any organisation can only grow to the level of its people. Additionally it’s the people who give the service. Great cultures want to bring the best from their people and empower them to operate at their highest level. This usually means developing your people. Have a plan in place that equips them to perform where they are and educates and encourages them to grow into roles that excite them and they find rewarding. The better you treat your people the better they treat your internal and external customers.
3. Feedback is prioritised internally and externally. Growth is dictated to by the speed of feedback. The sooner you know something needs to be done differently the sooner you can correct it. This requires the ability to both give and receive feedback. When there is a sense of psychological safety in a team and people know that problems are attacked and not people then it can become both safe and expected that feedback will be given in a timely manner. Whenever I ask people if they would like to receive feedback if they did something wrong I usually can count on 100% of hands going up. When I then ask who has given feedback and/or who has received it in the last week it very few hands go up. The giving and receiving of constructive feedback can be a great starting point for training and team development!
Trust is a slow growing tree. There are definitely things you can do to secure it and encourage its growth in your team. All of these take time, effort, energy and focus. Are you giving enough deliberate effort to actively develop your team culture?
