Today starts my deep dive into the five critical dysfunctions of a team. The uncomfortable truth is that true teamwork rarely happens in any organisation without a focus on its implementation, and this is only set to continue as many organisations implement hybrid working.
I will explore each of the five dysfunctions of a team separately, and please remember they all interrelate as you plan your team development.
Getting Specific About Trust
In the world of leadership development, books on authenticity and vulnerability have been shared continuously by Stephen Covey and Brene Brown; rightly so when you consider the impact of embracing these traits on the topic of trust.
Trust is an overused word, and it is key to clarify what we mean when it comes to trust and its absence within our teams.
The absence of trust in a team occurs because of a lack of ability to be vulnerable to each other’s challenges, mistakes, quirks, and development areas.
Leading on from this, team members want to know that the intentions of everyone in the group are both true and good and only then can individuals share their vulnerability with each other.
I have shared a slightly different definition of trust that we’ve come to expect, which has always been based on past behaviour. This new definition of trust focuses on our future behaviour as we move forward to create the results we now want.
When people understand that they can be open, they move forward and can channel their energy and focus in such a way to produce better results faster as they avoid being held back by the need to play office politics.
Establishing this level of trust doesn’t happen overnight, especially if you work in a competitive environment where people are rewarded for ‘outdoing’ each other.
Though trust-building takes time, the alternative is constant game playing with your team members, constantly checking their behaviours, holding back ideas and help and worst of all, holding unfounded grudges.
Team meetings become tedious, and everyone avoids contributing ideas and support to each other.
Does this description of a team without trust sound familiar?
If you aren’t experiencing it now, I suspect you might have been in this exact scenario at some point in your career.
So now, let’s look at some of the behaviours of a trusting team before I share some ideas on establishing the trusting team all leaders want.
I mentioned a couple of phrases earlier around authenticity and vulnerability. When individuals embrace these traits, you will find that individuals are willing to:
- Appreciate each other’s abilities.
- Ask for and give help, as well as ask for feedback on their ideas.
- Work on what is important for the team rather than scoring points off one another.
- Accept and make apologies.
If your team isn’t displaying the traits of trust, here are several suggestions you can implement.
How To Establish Trust in Your Team
First, accept that this is a worthwhile process that will also take time. Then it is a case of building trust with a series of exercises to build awareness as you move forward.
A ‘getting to know you exercise’ is simple and easy to achieve as a first step. Create a list of easy to answer questions that cause curiosity rather than embarrassment.
For example, these could include: where they were born, some of the unique challenges they have faced, their favourite hobbies or sports team, their first job and their worst job.
Their favourite holiday destination, the number of siblings they have, their favourite type of food, something they are proud of achieving.
An uncomplicated process like this opens the conversation every time.
You can move on from this to understanding team members’ different profiles. One recognised method that does this well is Insights Discovery Team Development. Based on the psychology of Carl Jung, Insights® Discovery starts with a simple and memorable four colour model to help your team understand:
- their style
- their strengths and critically when it comes to trust,
- the value they each bring the team.
The team at Zestfor are trained facilitators in this process, and when our clients come to us with the challenge of a dysfunctional team, this is the first intervention we suggest. This development programme can be delivered virtually, and if you want to know more, drop me a note here.
Leading on from this, experiential team exercises, strengths identification, and 360 feedback are foundational ways to develop trust.
In a short space of time, these exercises can deliver a shift in the level of trust in your team. The next step is maintaining this.
So, it is more than possible to build in regular follow up and individual development plans. Remember: The subject of trust always starts with the leader going first.
A question for you are you a leader that demonstrates vulnerability with the team?
Maybe you need to lose face in front of the team by admitting a mistake so that your team members will take the same risk themselves.
I hope this exploration of trust has stimulated some ideas for the next steps you can take?
Next time I want to talk about conflict, something that can happen in the best of teams.
Until next time,
Julia Carter
How Can We Help Your Team Performance?
Our range of leadership and team development programmes focuses on supporting you to change your dysfunctional team.
Managers and their teams will improve vital communication, collaboration and influencing skills over six months – developing all participants into high performing virtual team members. Click here for a full programme description or call one of our team on 0845 548 0833.
About Zestfor
Zestfor specialises in developing leadership Training programmes and resources scientifically tailored for technical markets – including Pharmaceutical, I.T., and Life Sciences.
Our blend of in-classroom, online, and virtual live-stream delivery methods will engage and assure even the most introverted team members from the first meeting – whether face-to-face or virtually. So, to have a brief chat, call us on 0845 548 0833.
