Establishing trust among members of a virtual team is a prerequisite for being

able to work as a team. Coworkers can help build trusting relationships in sever
al ways: clearly communicating the value each brings to the team, demonstrating
commitment to meet team expectations and being thorough enough to catch and fix
the problems that will inevitably pop up from time to time.
Trust as a foundation for high performance means just that: trust comes first. W
hen we try to make the plan before the trust issues are resolved, we deal with s
ymptoms rather than causes and repeating problems just change names.
Defining Trust
There are two parts to trust: a feeling part that indicates trust and a performa
nce track record that confirms trust.
An active feeling of trust is confidence: in leadership, in veracity, in reliabi
lity. A passive feeling of trust is the absence of worry or suspicion. Our most
productive relationships are already based on trust, sometimes unrecognized and
frequently taken for granted.
Trust, then, can be defined as confidence, the absence of suspicion, confirmed b
y track record and our ability to correct.
The track record is only a confirmation of well-placed trust. If we define trust
solely in terms of past events, we often consign ourselves to long periods of t
esting and sometimes stubborn unforgiveness. It is much more productive to corre
ct mistakes and miscommunications to re-build trust starting now.
Trust
Trust is the antidote to the fears and risks attendant to meaningful commitment.
Trust means confidence in team leadership and vision. When trust prevails, team
members are more willing to go through a difficult process, supported through u
ps, downs, risk and potential loss.
Trust is most efficiently established when leadership commits to vision first, a
nd everyone knows those commitments are genuine. The process for leaders to comm
it is the same as for everyone else: assess pre-commitment doubts, questions, un
knowns and fears. This involves three simple steps:
List the unknowns.
Assess worst case scenarios and their survivability.
Research the unknowns.
The list of unknowns reveals some answers and further questions. Some of these q
uestions lend themselves to research (others' experience, a small pilot plan), a
nd some have no apparent answers from our pre-commitment position. These latter
comprise the bottom line or irreducible risk. We learn the outcome only after co
mmitment. Every major commitment contains some irreducible risk, some lingering
unknowns. We therefore make every major commitment in at least partial ignorance
.
Leadership now understands the potential loss and gain involved in the new visio
n. At this point, leadership can commit itself, and prepare to include other tea
m members. That preparation must include a plan for leadership to share visibly
both risk and reward with the other team members who will be coming on board.
With leadership's commitment to a clear vision, and a genuine plan to share risk
s and rewards, the atmosphere for trust is in place. We are now ready to include
others in our team effort
Trust Starts With You. . .
As a team leader, it is your primary responsibility to surround yourself and you
r team with good people.
If you're trying to build trust, the people you surround yourself with will have
the capacity to trust and be trusted. Obviously these two concepts go hand and
hand (but you'd be surprised to see how often they're overlooked).
A true leader understands their team's ability to perform effectively is affecte
d by situations and dynamics outside the workplace.
The true nature of your employees is paramount to your team's ability to build t
rust and open free-flowing lines of communication.
Some folks will never accept this - these are not the types of people you want o
n your team
Trust building exercises, games and activities help promote a strong bond betwen
team members and co-workers.
Trust is the culmination of good communication and constant maintenance. Relatio
nships are based upon trust and cannot exist without it. Taking the time to prac
tice trust building is not only a good idea, it is absolutely necessary from tim
e to time
Trust Defined

Mutual trust is a shared belief that you can depend on each other to achieve a c
ommon purpose.
More comprehensively trust defined as "the willingness of a party (trustor) to b
e vulnerable to the actions of another party (trustee) based on the expectation
that the trustee will perform an action important to the trustor, regardless of
the trustor's ability to monitor or control the trustee."8
"People sense how you feel about them. If you want to change their attitudes tow
ard you, change the negative attitudes you have toward them." Building relations
hips requires the building of trust. Trust is the expectancy of people that they
can rely on your word. It is built through integrity and consistency in relatio
nships.
Effective Listening: The Bottom Line of Trust
If you listen well people will trust you. "You cannot establish trust if you can
not listen. A conversation is a relationship. Both speaker and listener play a p
art, each influencing the other. Instead of being a passive recipient, the liste
ner has as much to do in shaping the conversation as the speaker"9... More
Managing Cultural Differences
Cultural differences play a key role in the creation of trust, since trust is bu
ilt in different ways, and means different things in different cultures... More
Empathy

Empathy is valued currency. It allows us to create bonds of trust, it gives us i

nsights into what others may be feeling or thinking; it helps us understand how
or why others are reacting to situations, it sharpens our people acumen and inform
s our decisions.
Empathy is also particularly critical to leadership development in this age of y
oung, independent, highly marketable and mobile workers... More
Trust-based Working Relationships
Trust has an important link with your organizational success. "Trust elevates le
vels of commitment and sustains effort and performance without the need for mana
gement controls and close monitoring."4 Trust between a manager and an employee
is based on the trustor's perception of the trustee ability, benevolence, and in
tegrity.
Trust as a Source of Competitive Advantage

Trust-based working relationships are an important source of your sustainable co

mpetitive advantage because trust is valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable, and o
ften nonsubstitutable. The level of trust a corporate leader is able to garner f
rom his/her employees is contingent upon the employee's perceptions of the leade
r's ability, benevolence, and integrity. A study that was conducted to determine
whether trust could be a source of competitive advantage8 showed that trust is
significantly related to sales, profits, and turnover. More broadly, the study c
oncluded that "the ability of a general manager to earn higher trust from her or
his employees likely creates a competitive advantage for a firm over its rivals
."
Five Ways to Build Trust
Teams that work well deliver outstanding results. We are all familiar with the s
aying that two heads are better than one. When it comes to teams, many heads are
better than one. The combination of skills, knowledge, ideas and enthusiasm tak
es performance to a new level. Yet before a team really starts to perform there
has to be trust. So what can you do to build trust in teams?
1. Set clear expectations
If a team is going to get results it needs to work together effectively. Working
effectively depends on there being clear expectations of what is expected of in
dividuals and the team as a collective. Setting clear expectations lays the foun
dations for trust as there are no hidden agendas.
2. Demonstrate your reliability
People will start to rely on one and other if they know that others will deliver
on their agreed contributions. If individuals can demonstrate to each other tha
n they can be relied on, there is greater scope for building trust. Reliability
can be demonstrated in many ways and most powerfully by doing what you promised.
3. Create dependency
People often describe themselves as a team when in reality they are a group. Tea
ms are dependent on each other to get the results from a specific performance ch
allenge. Creating dependency means that trusting becomes a vital part in a succe
ssful outcome.
4. Being supportive
In teams, particularly those facing a major performance challenge, people often
need to step out of their comfort zone and take chances. They will only do this
if they feel that they can do it safely. Safety is created when people are suppo
rtive of each other. This supportiveness re-enforces safety and builds trust.
5. Create mutual accountability
Accountability is not something that is negative but a way of accounting for wha
t has and has not been achieved. Creating mutual accountability where the team h
olds itself accountable not only for what is achieved individually but as a coll
ective is a vital part in building trust.
Trust and lack of it can be what results in great or non performance in a team

How to build trust by a team leeader

Trust is not a right, it is earned. Some team members will trust the manager fro
m the outset, and others will have to see proof. Here are a few ways:
By doing what you say.
By communicating openly with your team.
By actively listening to your team members.
By allowing team members to take risks and grow.
By breaking down walls for your team.
By providing feedback that enables growth.
By rewarding in public.
By managing discipline in private.
By sharing the lead.
Since professionals lead demanding, busy lives often with great pressures and sh
ort deadlines from their clients, it is all too common to see them acting in tru
st-diminishing ways. Professionals are not less trustworthy, but they may be mor
e neglectful of trust-building activities.
Some common symptoms include:
1. Lack of cohesiveness as discussions divide between differing coalitions
2. Members complaining and finding fault with one another
3. Combative behavior displayed in the name of "playing devil's advocate"
4. Subjecting of even minor decisions to protracted debate
5. Changing decisions after they've been made.
These everyday frustrations soon result in energy lost to suspicion, unresolved
issues, forgotten commitments, unclear agreements, missed deadlines. In turn, th
ese cause blame, gossip, resentment, and frustration.
Many of these symptoms derive from a common cause: a lack of trust between and a
mong team members. When people lack trust, they reveal only what they feel is sa
fe, and usually only a small part of their potential contribution. The group lea
der is left trying to conduct a symphony with one-stringed instruments.
As a group leader, you can help people establish a level of trust among themselv
es by helping them understand the behaviors that build trust. To begin, try this
exercise:
STEP 1: IDENTIFY SPECIFIC ELEMENTS IN A TRUSTING RELATIONSHIP
Ask your people, as a group, to complete the following sentence: "I trust people
when. . . . " Ask them to use words that describe specific behaviors and observ
able actions.
You will note that the question was not posed as "I can't trust people when" sin
ce that might cause some to engage in nonproductive finger pointing. The goal is
to get trust-building behaviors out on the table without being negative about a
nyone's past performance.
STEP 2: DEVELOP SHARED GUIDELINES FOR PERSONAL CONDUCT
After you have identified some of the elements inherent in trust relationships,
your next step is to brainstorm ideas with your group to establish specific guid
elines that encourage the trust behaviors you have listed and that prohibit trus
t-eroding actions.
Jon Katzenbach, the recognized expert and author of The Discipline of Teams, ela
borated this point when he told us:
Trust and mutual respect are not necessarily synonymous. Mutual respect is an ad
ded dimension that can be as important as trust, particularly in the early stage
s of group work before personal trust has time to develop. On the one hand, it h
ighlights the importance of "competence" in professional service work. You can h
ave respect for someone that you do not necessarily like - and you can work effe
ctively with them. On the other hand, you can also trust someone whom you do not
necessarily "respect" in terms of their competence. One of the best ways for tw
o people to develop trust is to do "real work" together.
Elements of Trust
Consider some of the trust elements, and what you can do about them.
1. SHARING
Try this exercise: Give each group member a card to write upon. Ask each to list
on the card:
o A particular attribute, talent, or skill they possess
o A unique experience or accomplishment that other members would not know about
o A personal quirk, idiosyncrasy, or shortcoming that they wish they could remed
y or are currently working on rectifying
These need not be all professionally related.
Ask people to initial the back of their card. Collect the cards, reshuffle them,
distribute one card to each member, and ask each in turn to read their card alo
ud. Ask the group to try to identify the individual who listed the articulated a
ttributes.
The value of this exercise is in helping team members learn more about each othe
r. Trust involves the personal risk of disclosing something intimate about ourse
lves, both positive and not so positive. By taking risks, we move to a deeper le
vel of trust. Trust needs to be earned.

2. FOLLOWING THROUGH ON COMMITMENTS

When people agree to do something, it is not uncommon for them to ask themselves
: "Can I really get this done, and done on time?" Doubt also exists in the minds
of those being given the commitment. That's natural and even healthy. What is n
ot healthy is saying "yes" to a commitment without the pure intention or strong
desire to produce the final outcome, or produce it on time.
Failure to deliver on a commitment may be passed off in several ways:
o As a memory lapse ("I'm not sure that's what I said.")
o As an inconvenience ("I didn't realize that it was going to take so much time.
")
o As an interruption ("You wouldn't believe the intensity of my client demands t
his past month")
o As a change of heart ("After thinking about this, I'm not sure that it really
is the right thing for us to do.")
Many problems with commitment come more in the making than in the executing. In
a group that winks at commitments, people stop believing what others tell them.
a. Preventing memory lapse
Set up a guideline where someone in the group (on a rotational basis) documents
each commitment that was undertaken and circulates the list of commitments to al
l members.
b. Preventing the commitment becoming an inconvenience
Set a guideline for a modest investment of time that will be devoted to any proj
ect. In other words, better to approach any undertaking incrementally, with smal
l steps, getting at least the first parts of it accomplished, than allowing too
much to be put on someone's plate.
c. Coping with an interruption
In people's busy lives, there will be times when emergencies upset the best-laid
plans. Make contingency arrangements so that someone who has committed to takin
g on a project has someone else serving as a back-up resource.
d. Avoiding a change of heart
A change of heart usually comes about when people feel that a project was forced
upon them. To avoid this, ensure that you allow group members to only take thos
e assignments that they have "voluntarily" agreed to implement. Many of us have
attended a meeting where someone said: "There's a great project for Betty. Let's
assign it to her. That'll teach her to miss one of our meetings."

In Summary
Trust is the basis for our drive to contribute.The team that competently manages
its members' desire to contribute is already building trust. This involves an i
mproved understanding of ourselves. We must recognize our blind spots in order t
o tip the balance away from fear and toward our vital and vulnerable desire to b
etter things.