Team lacking trust do not function well. However, there are three simple ways to develop trust at work. The three ways include; be honest, communicate openly and meet face to face regularly.

1. Three Ways to Develop Trust at Work
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Emmanuelle looks around the room at the sales team. She’s new at the company and still
learning about the relationship dynamics between her coworkers. Tensions are running high
as it was just announced that the team didn’t make their sales goal for the second month in a
row. Not that she’s surprised.
This past month, the marketing assistant was asked to create a pitch deck from scratch for a
potential client in Canada—a large hospitality brand. Emmanuelle found out later that he’d
never created a pitch deck before yet wouldn’t ask anyone for help. The marketing manager
knew that he wasn’t very experienced yet was too focused on meeting her personal goals to
offer guidance.
The major blow came when the marketing assistant waited until the day before the account
director was flying to Canada to meet the client, to hand over a few poorly organized slides
that covered only a fraction of the information needed. Not to mention that the hyper-
analytical language he used that wasn’t appropriate for a luxury hotel brand.
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2. The poor account director had to pull an all-nighter to get the deck done himself, before
pitching with red eyes on zero sleep. The result? That client is no longer a potential.
Why is This Team So Dysfunctional?
Emmanuelle has been racking her brain trying to figure out how to navigate this new playing
field. What’s going on with this team? Why is it so dysfunctional?
Just because the necessity of teamwork has been preached to us since childhood doesn’t
mean we’re inherently good at it—or even like it for that matter. Working with other people
can be challenging, even more so in the workplace when stakes are high. So now that we’re
off the little league field, what can we, as working adults, do to have a positive and winning
team? According to Patrick Lencioni, there are five core areas where dysfunction can be
seen in teams: lack of trust, fear of conflict, avoidance of commitment, lack of accountability
and not results-focused.
In Emmanuelle’s case, her team has a major trust deficit. Teams that don’t have trust don’t
function well. Let’s take a look at the importance of trust, what teams with and without trust
look like, and how we can start building trust in our own teams starting today.
Great Teams Have Trust
Here are some facts about teams and trust:
Interaction associates & human capital institute study shows high performing
organizations have higher levels of trust than low performing organizations

3. Interaction associates & human capital institute study shows high performing
organizations have higher levels of trust than low performing organizations
So the studies tell us high performing teams have trust, but what exactly does a team with
trust look like versus a team without trust?

4. Teams with and Without Trust: What They Look Like
Teams that don’t have trust:
Conceal weaknesses and mistakes from each other
Hesitate to ask for help or feedback
Jump to conclusions about other’s intentions
Don’t offer help outside of their own areas of responsibility
Fail to recognize and tap into one another’s skills
Teams that have trust:
Admit weaknesses and mistakes, ask for help
Give one another the benefit of the doubt
Take risks in offering feedback and assistance
Accept questions and input about their work
Appreciate and tap into one another’s skills
Offer and accept apologies
Look forward to opportunities to work as a group
From $200 a Week to a $30 Billion Valuation: What Airbnb Can Teach Us
About Trust
A great example of how trust can benefit a team can be seen in the now uber successful
Airbnb. In 2009, Airbnb was close to going bust with only $200/week in revenue. Searching
f t id f d t th ti d tt th li ti h t b d With t

5. for answers outside of data, they noticed a pattern – the listing photos were bad. Without
any data to back it up, the co-founders decided to travel to NYC, rent a pro camera & take
pictures of listings. Revenue doubled within a week.
Without trust, the founders wouldn’t have been willing to try out an idea that had no data to
back it up. In fact, they probably wouldn’t have shared that idea if they didn’t trust each other.
And this idea prevented them from throwing in the towel. Now with the company valued at
$30 billion, their trust was worth its weight in gold.
Now that the founders of Airbnb have seen the great benefit of trusting new ideas, and
allowing for vulnerability, new hires are asked on day one to come up with new features to try
out. They appreciate and tap into their employees’ skills and want them feel comfortable
making mistakes. They’ve seen first-hand the benefits that can come from this type of team.
Sound Familiar?
If you’re reflecting on your team and realizing it might be lacking in trust—don’t run for the
hills just yet. Trust isn’t a “you have it or you don’t” thing—it’s something that takes effort and
awareness. If you find yourself in a team suffering from lack of trust, try these three tips. You
can start using these tips as soon as today to help get your team on track!
Three Tips for Developing Trust at Work
1. Be Honest
Tell the truth
Be honest when sharing information, even if it it’s to your disadvantage
Use truthful nonverbal communication
Experts say more than half communication is nonverbal
Look people in the eye, use open body language
2. Communicate Openly
Talk to your team members in an honest, meaningful way
Listen deeply for what’s being said, and not being said
If you have important or relevant information, share it immediately with the team
Meet face to face regularly
3 Meet face to face regularly

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3. Meet face to face regularly
Share personal stories
Ask questions (sensitively) about colleague’s family, hobbies, where they’ve lived, etc.
Don’t underestimate casual social activities after work
So let’s get back to Emmanuelle’s team—the team that for two months straight hasn’t
reached their sales goals.
If the marketing assistant had trusted his manager, he would have asked for help with the
pitch deck, knowing that he wouldn’t be reproached. He wouldn’t have hidden the fact that he
didn’t know what he was doing. And if his manager trusted the team, she wouldn’t be only
focusing on her goals, while ignoring the goals of the team. She would have made it a
priority to check in with the assistant, knowing his inexperience warrants a little extra
attention, for the benefit of everyone involved.
Imagine how this situation would have turned out if the team had trust—the deck would have
been completed well and on time, the account director wouldn’t have had to drop his
responsibilities to stay up all night and fix a deck. Instead, he would have been well rested
and prepared to land a new client. And you know what? They may have a large luxury hotel
brand on their roster—if only they had trusted each other.
Do you have trust at work? Yes or no, how can you tell? Let’s talk about it.
Leave a comment below, send us an email, or find us on Twitter.
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