How to Build Trust in Teams (and Why It Matters)

Can you trust your employees? Are you certain they can stay on task when you’re not actively supervising them? That they’ll conduct themselves according to company expectations all on their own? And show up next week?

This is often as far as organizations go when considering workplace trust. But there are two more critical questions:

• Do the employees trust me?
• Do the employees trust each other?

Being trustworthy at work is about your credibility and reliability, yes. It’s also about relationships and belonging. After all, many sources consider fear to be the opposite of trust, not flakiness. You’re less fearful of consequences (we’re gonna miss that deadline!) when you have trust (my team is on top of it!).

So, fear not. You can trust us to tell you how to build trust–in teams, as a leader, and as a collective. 

What does trust look like in the workplace?

First, let’s get a feel for how trusting our workplaces currently are. Trust in the workplace is security and confidence. This begins with established credibility and reliability.

Credibility

We have to feel that others at work have integrity and are competent, and demonstrate the same. This means:

• We aren’t afraid to own our mistakes and be held accountable.
• The manager is knowledgeable and shares their expertise.
• Our coworkers are capable of completing their parts of a project.
• The company upholds its ethics and values and is honest in its dealings.

You don’t need to have the most credibility ever to achieve this. People mess up or aren’t a great fit for the rest of the organization. But on the average day, you could agree with the above statements.

Reliability

We count on everyone else at work for something. Imagine if the person/s responsible for payroll were unreliable. It just wouldn’t fly. Reliability at work is more than just showing up.

• Our leaders follow through on their promises.
• We are as consistent as possible in the quality of our work.
• Our coworkers meet their deadlines.
• The company is consistent with what it offers, such as support, recognition, guidance, training, and other activities associated with the culture. 

Even workplaces that promote autonomy or flying by the seat of your pants have a vein of reliability running through them. They still create rituals. You can still reasonably anticipate how tomorrow may look.

Intimacy

Now, back to that third component of workplace trust. Relationships, or belonging at work, also described as intimacy. You can see your leaders as credible and your coworkers as reliable, but this doesn’t mean you trust them enough to be yourself around them.

• You can talk to your manager when you’re struggling with something.
• You and your coworkers share new ideas and suggest solutions openly.
• Everyone feels safe raising a concern and can do so anonymously if need be.
• Certain people aren’t excluded from receiving support, contributing ideas, or participating in team activities.

These are topics we discuss a lot when exploring the benefits of recognition. Recognition solidifies trust at work because we feel valued and appreciated. 

Why do we have to learn to build trust in teams?

Employees who work together have to build trust because it’s the number one, top-of-list, very first, must-have quality of a cohesive team. Teams comprised of people who trust one another are great at:

• Asking for help
• Active listening
• Offering feedback
• Accepting new ideas
• Working toward a common goal
• Holding each other to standards
• Showing empathy and understanding

The case study we just saw reveals one of the biggest barriers to workplace trust–the isolation of remote work. It’s more difficult to build the sort of connections that allow us to hold a teammate accountable or ask for help. 

In addition to this, poor communication in the workplace takes its toll. When people aren’t sure what’s expected of them, they don’t feel secure. 

Ultimately, centering trust-building efforts on teams improves collaboration, enhances the quality of their output, and creates an environment people prefer to be in.

How to build trust in teams: Tips and strategies 

Learning how to build trust in teams isn’t all icebreakers and escape rooms. For team members to trust one another, it helps to first trust their surroundings. That’s on the employer.

Trust-building tip #1: Be a human leader.

Managers and leaders who won’t admit mistakes are more common than we like to admit. On the one hand, everyone would probably prefer to mess up in private. But on the other (more important) hand, employees want to be seen as human and therefore led by other humans. 

Having faults and a personality can make you vulnerable in the workplace. But if you can be vulnerable, then your employees can, too. The trust you build with them means they’ll be more honest about their faults. They’ll feel okay asking you for help before things go completely awry. Feedback will be more constructive. Those are basic features of interactions where two parties trust one another. 

Trust-building tip #2: Be reliable and honest in communications.

Most of us have encountered a workplace that talks a big game about work-life balance, but overwhelms its employees. There’s not one inconsistency or incongruency like this that employees don’t notice, even if they’re not complaining out loud. 

Get ahead of quiet quitting, disengagement, and conflict by assessing and addressing what isn’t aligning. For instance, if an internal challenge is increasing the pressure to perform temporarily, say so. This way, employees don’t have to fill in the blanks, potentially with something more malevolent. 

Take this further in daily operations. Don’t just make communications honest; make them transparent. Explain decisions. Issue updates regularly, and leave no agenda hidden. Organizations have to be known to be trusted. 

These practices help build a track record of reliability and accountability that employees appreciate, even if sh*t happens and everything isn’t always perfect.

Trust tip #3: Help teams see one another more with recognition tools.

Now we can move on to coworker trust-building. Peer-focusing your recognition program is one of the best steps you can take toward team trust. 

For example, HeyTaco users give one another 🌮’s in the team chat for little victories and positive behaviors. This is a casual way to frequently acknowledge one another’s contributions. Seeing others’ strengths and receiving praise for our own unites teams.  

When appreciation and respect are centered in everyday operations, conflicts are easier to resolve. Collaboration becomes something employees look forward to, and people have more chances to make a positive impression. 

Trust-building tip #4: Maintain the right psychological conditions.  

In our personal lives, trust can be a many-layered, complex dynamic. The trust we share with a close friend or partner goes through a lot of changes. Our respective goals, memories, and challenges are unique, shifting over the course of the relationship.

When you consider all that, you see how it’s actually much simpler to gain and keep trust in the workplace. Unlike our personal lives, the purpose (job role) and scene (place of work) pretty much stay the same. A lot of what we need is already available in a company’s mission and core values. 

Consider highlighting some of the following for a trustworthy, psychologically safe working environment:

• Encouraging creative solutions and reasonable risk-taking
• Discouraging a culture of blame
• Keeping feedback respectful
• Valuing a difference of opinion
• “Celebrating” mistakes by focusing on the lesson learned
• Sharing knowledge and appreciating others’ expertise

If everyone can follow a code of conduct, trust will be a natural consequence. The reason every organization doesn’t is usually that they don’t even bother communicating it clearly, let alone championing those behaviors as values every day.

Trust-building tip #5: Create shared experiences for greater inclusivity. 

You knew there were going to be some good old-fashioned team-building exercises in the mix, and here they are. Well, not exactly old-fashioned, since the modern workplace includes so many virtual employees. Today, it’s more important than ever to let trust build up through team rituals.

The trick to making them stick is to adopt an approach that feels more natural and low-pressure. In other words, stop spending so much money and executing comprehensive planning. Participation will increase, it’ll feel less disruptive, and there’ll be enough room for them to make it fit into their culture.

Some of these remote-friendly team rituals can take as little as 10 minutes a week. Outside of that, have employees work together on solving problems. Use peer nominations instead of having leaders decide who gets an award. Like peer recognition, these strategies are more community-oriented than company-directed.  

Looking to repair broken trust? Take these five steps.

Favoritism accusations, poor follow-through on promises, or a minor breach in confidentiality. Address it quickly by making your way through these five steps to repairing broken trust.

1. Name the offense.

“The feedback you received during your annual review wasn’t fair or based on complete information.” Statements like this alleviate a sense of injustice that many employees get stuck on. Having the trust breach acknowledged in plain language removes their biggest barrier to moving forward–feeling the need to “prove” that any wrongdoing occurred.

2. Own your (or the company’s) part.

“Your manager did not receive adequate sensitivity training or handle your situation in accordance with company policy.” Trustworthy people and organizations do not shy away from accountability and aren’t fearful of being honest.

3. Make amends where possible.

Clarifying a policy, delivering on what was missed, or offering a sincere apology. This is the logical next step after defining what happened and admitting why. 

4. Focus on rebuilding.

If amends have been offered and accepted, do not ruminate or repeatedly revisit the issue. Use the strategies above as a show of good faith that change is on the horizon. 

5. Learn from it and adjust accordingly.

Prevent the recurrence of the specific issue at hand. Sometimes, it’s not a toxic culture or a simple mistake, but an identifiable gap in values, process, or leadership. Seal it.

Get to know (and trust) one another better with HeyTaco.

Consistency creates reliability. Authenticity serves credibility, and positivity makes people feel welcome. Everything you need to start building trust can be found in peer recognition. 

HeyTaco is a light, informal way to say thanks, way to go, or just give someone a little lift. If you want to bolster larger changes in workplace culture, start small. Small wins, small gestures. Brick by brick, they make up the structure that hosts inclusivity, connection, and plenty of trust.

Try it risk-free!

How to build trust in teams FAQ

How do you measure trust in teams?

Use surveys and assessments to ask questions related to trust. Team cohesion metrics that include both qualitative and quantitative data are helpful as well. 

Behavioral and psychological safety indicators are easily observed in the workplace. Conflicts and gossiping are like billboards for workplace toxicity, but avoiding conflict and communication are just as prevalent in low-trust environments. 

What’s trust-building for remote teams?

Trust-building for remote teams involves fostering rapport and stronger connections with virtual employees. Communicating more frequently and in varied ways makes one feel more accountable to the team they belong to, instead of keeping them in their one-person bubble. Some ways remote teams improve trust:

• Encouraging social connections online, such as with water coolers, common interest groups, and virtual celebrations.
• Video-first communication, like weekly Zoom or Teams meetings.
• Daily peer recognition that won’t disrupt workflows.
• A tendency to “over-communicate” or reach out to a remote team member more than you would to an on-site employee.

What is the biggest red flag at work?

The most common signs of an unhealthy work environment begin with a lack of communication, proper compensation, or transparency. Former employees also frequently cite a lack of recognition or appreciation as a reason for quitting. 

Going deeper, applicants watch out for high absenteeism and poor attention to work-life balance. 

How can leaders build trust within a team?

Leading by example is first. Set clear expectations and follow through on your word. It’s also important to admit mistakes, be human, and not shy away from vulnerability. 

Aside from that, teams need more chances to connect. Recognition tools, team activities, and special collaborations create additional opportunities for building trust.