How To Build Trust on Your Team in 7 Steps

Building trust between yourself and your team members at the company or organization you work at is often integral to executing successful results in the workplace. You can build trust on your team by participating in a variety of important activities and performing certain tasks in the workplace. If you're hoping to create a sense of trust and positivity on your team, you may find it helpful to learn about how you can build this trust and why it's important.

In this article, we explain what it means to build trust on your team, describe why it's important to do so and share seven steps for how to build trust on your team in the workplace.

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What does it mean to build trust on your team?

Building trust on your team means actively trying to form positive and trusting relationships with those on your team in the workplace. You can build trust on your team by performing a variety of activities that allow an atmosphere of openness, honesty and comfort, such as collaborating on a project or playing games together. Doing so may foster success and encourage people to work together toward a common goal for the good of each other and for the company at which they work.

Related: What Is the Purpose of Team Building?

Why is it important to build trust on your team?

It's important to build trust on your team in the workplace for a wide variety of reasons. For instance, if there's a high level of trust on your team, members of your team can likely feel more comfortable communicating with each other, which is essential to executing successful products. Additionally, if there's trust on your team, team members might be more likely to want to work together in a cohesive and organized manner, which might increase your team's progress and create an overall positive work environment.

Building trust on your team can also allow team members to be open and honest with each other, which can be invaluable when any issues or challenges arise. This is because if team members trust each other, they're often likely to want to work together, rather than individually, toward a common goal in a time-efficient and effective manner.

How to build trust in your team

If you want to build better trust on your team in the workplace, consider following these seven steps:

1. Foster communication

Fostering communication between yourself and your team is a great way to build trust. Having a set platform to communicate on and using it frequently can help your team members feel as informed, updated and involved in the project as possible. This may increase trust among yourself and your team, as it allows everyone to stay informed if things change within the project or team and work together to find a solution.

Related: How To Build a Team Culture (With Steps and Tips)

2. Try to be transparent

Trying to remain as transparent as possible with your team can help you maintain a level of trust in the workplace. For instance, if you have concerns about the progress that the team's making, it may be helpful to share these concerns with team members. Additionally, if you believe that a certain project is going to take longer than expected, you can convey this information to the team so that everyone understands the project's timeline.

Related: 14 Ways To Build Trust in the Workplace

3. Meet with individual team members

Meeting with each team member individually can help you get to know each staff member. Doing so can create a sense of trust better team members and yourself and allow you to gain insight into who they are, both professionally and personally. Likewise, each team member can learn the same information about you, which can help you build positive and trusting work relationships.

4. Conduct team-building activities

Conducting team-building activities can be helpful for bringing team members together in ways that aren't necessarily focused on work. Team-building activities often consist of fun, brief games or activities such as scavenger hunts, trust games and sharing games. Team members can participate in these activities by themselves or on a team, and they often provide an outlet to speak freely and get to know other people on the team in a fun, safe and professional environment.

5. Encourage collaboration

Encouraging collaboration among team members can help them feel more comfortable with you and each other. While collaborating, people might grow more comfortable with each other and learn to work with each other in an efficient and effective manner. Encouraging team members to complete tasks together or work on their individual tasks at the same time can also help them build relationships.

Related: Tips for Preventing Lack of Trust in the Workplace

6. Show your appreciation

Actively showing your team members how much you appreciate them may help you earn their trust. Emphasizing what they bring to the workplace and what you value about them can show them why they're important to the team. Doing so can also help you form positive relationships with team members and encourage them to continue producing good work.

Related: 30 Team-Building Ideas for the Workplace

7. Exhibit leadership qualities

Exhibiting leadership qualities can help draw team members to you and enable them to trust you and other members of the team. It can be helpful to model the specific behaviors and skills that you'd like to see your team members exhibit.

For instance, you might hope to have team members learn a new computer software during the duration of a team project. In this case, you may exhibit leadership qualities by becoming completely fluent in the new computer software so that you can offer learning sessions to team members and offer your help if team members need assistance.