Trust as a driver of growth: 5 thoughtful strategies for building a high-performing team

What determines whether a business succeeds or fails? Leaders often make the (understandable) mistake of focusing solely on hard numbers and factors they can readily calculate. This applies to both strategic planning and people management. Less tangible “soft skills”, such as trust and the ability to work together, are often treated as secondary. Yet a lack of these qualities among employees is a decisive factor in bringing business growth to a halt.

The maths is quite simple: a lack of trust leads to tighter controls, more bureaucracy and more precautions. The result: things slow down and costs rise. Building a culture of trust in a business never happens overnight. It’s an ongoing process, based on open communication and active steps on your part. In this article, we introduce five strategies that can noticeably increase trust within your team. Put into practice consistently, they lead to measurable improvements in how your business operates.

1. Create safety by making it OK to make mistakes

Google’s long-running study of team effectiveness, “Project Aristotle”, found that nothing matters more for successful collaboration than “psychological safety”. The concept describes a state of mind in which employees feel safe in their working environment and aren’t afraid to make mistakes. Instead, they’re encouraged to admit them and learn from them. People who fear personal setbacks take fewer risks, limiting their development of important skills.

The strategy: don’t just celebrate successes in team meetings. Use the time to talk openly about mistakes too. Of course, this shouldn’t involve talking down to anyone. The point is to talk about your own mistakes, rather than discuss and judge other people’s. Leaders should always take the first step: what specific mistakes have I made recently, and what have I learnt from them?

The effect: when decision-makers set an example of openness about mistakes, it signals to all employees that it’s safe to do the same. Nobody’s perfect, which is why effective solutions depend on being open about problems.

2. Get to know how people work

How well do you know your employees? Not necessarily on a personal level, but in terms of how they go about their work. People can have very different approaches, problem-solving strategies and working habits. What’s part of one employee’s daily routine may seem completely alien to another. Misunderstandings and frustration can quickly follow, even though both ways of working achieve the desired result.

The strategy: help people understand each other by getting to know their individual ways of working. Ask every employee (including managers) to answer a short list of essential questions about their working style:

• At what time of day do I feel most focused?
• What are my biggest sources of stress?
• What does constructive feedback mean to me?
• How do I organise my day-to-day work?

The effect: even if your employees still prefer their own approach, talking openly about it helps others understand it. Once you understand why someone does something differently from you, confusion gives way to trust.

3. Build trust through autonomy

Placing trust in someone always means giving up some control. That applies not just to carrying out predefined projects, but also to shaping people’s responsibilities. This is where the concept of job crafting comes in: it suggests that employees are particularly motivated when they have a say in the work they do. Your employees should also be allowed to take on tasks outside their strict job description if they feel suited to them.

The strategy: there are good reasons for dividing up tasks and specialising. Even so, give your employees enough room to develop in their own way. Certain core tasks are clearly defined in advance, but, for example, 10–20 % of working time can be used for projects they choose themselves.

The effect: greater trust in your employees automatically leads to a stronger sense of responsibility. This, in turn, strengthens their connection with their work and, through it, with the company.

4. All in the same boat (at a team event)

Real trust in other people usually only shows itself in practice. When things get serious, we don’t fall back on stock phrases or tired metaphors. We draw on what we’ve experienced in exceptional situations. Anyone who has been able to rely on their team in the past will do so in the future too. Few of us would wish for these stress tests at work. But as a shared experience at a team event, they can have a lasting positive effect on the way a team works together.

The strategy: at the raft-building event, several teams used assorted materials to build a craft that would (hopefully) float. After the christening, it’s onto the water, where no one gives an inch in the final regatta. The perfect mix of cooperation and friendly competition.

The effect: the stakes are high enough to get every participant’s pulse racing, without ever putting them under the stress of a real crisis. Still, the trust has to be real: if your colleagues’ knot-tying isn’t up to scratch, you’re getting wet, like it or not.

5. Become a real team through empathy

Trusting someone inevitably means allowing yourself to be vulnerable. At work, this is often dismissed as a disadvantage, or even as unprofessional. The result is a company culture built on purely superficial relationships. Yet professionalism doesn’t necessarily mean shutting away your inner life at work. It’s more about treating your colleagues with respect and empathy.

The strategy: there are plenty of reasons why not everyone in a company knows each other personally. Perhaps your team is still relatively new, works across different sites or is simply too large for that to be possible. Yet just a few details about another person can help team members feel more empathy for each other. The “Personal Histories Exercise” by Patrick Lencioni uses just three simple questions, to be answered in turn at your next meeting:

• Where did you grow up?
• How many siblings do you have, and are they older or younger?
• What was an unusual or difficult challenge you faced in childhood?

The effect: the questions are personal, but not too personal, leaving plenty of room for different levels of vulnerability and openness. We generally put our own behaviour and failures down to external circumstances more often than we do other people’s. This exercise gives participants a way to move beyond that tendency over time. The result: greater understanding and a better working atmosphere.

Conclusion: trust is an investment in your business

We think this article makes it clear just how important it is to build trust within your team. It leads to faster communication, a stronger sense of responsibility and better team dynamics — all key to more progressive ways of working in your business. Short, open conversations, simple exercises or engaging team activities can help put this into practice.

We’d be happy to help you and your team build greater trust in each other through practical experience. Contact us now and you’ll receive a no-obligation proposal for your next team event.