The role of Trust and Psychological Safety when leading teams (1 of 2)
Quick Breakdown
How do you lead teams to do their best work? It's all about fostering an environment where teams can excel. Drawing from Patrick Lencioni's "5 Dysfunctions of a Team," the emphasis is on building trust and psychological safety. As a new leader, your role shifts from individual contributions to unlocking your team's potential.
Trust is the bedrock of high-performing teams. It's cultivated when members can share weaknesses without judgment. Embracing vulnerability as a leader, acknowledging mistakes, and building strong relationships are key.
Psychological safety, defined as a space where one can speak up without fear of retribution, is essential for constructive conflict and growth. Leaders should aim for transparency, delegate decision-making, and focus on outcomes over methods. In essence, a leader's success intertwines with their team's, and creating a safe, trusting environment is paramount.
Leading teams to do their best work
After over 1,000 coaching sessions with more than 40 clients, I have noticed patterns that have evolved into a proven method for leadership development. My expertise lies in guiding leaders to set the course for their teams, effectively manage stakeholders, navigate crises, and, most importantly, lead their teams to do their best work.
One framework that I find particularly effective in creating an environment where teams can excel is Patrick Lencioni's "5 Dysfunctions of a Team." This framework provides valuable insights into the behaviors and dynamics necessary for high-performing teams.
As a leader, it's crucial to understand that your main role is to unlock the potential of your team. Your success is no longer about your individual contributions but rather about creating an environment that allows your team members to thrive. Your success is intertwined with the success of your team.
Building trust and psychological safety are fundamental to fostering great teamwork. They are the foundation upon which a high-performing team can be built. There are two critical behaviors that you should focus on nurturing:
Creating a Trusted and Safe Environment: It is important to actively work towards creating an environment where team members feel safe to be their authentic selves.
Encouraging Open Communication: Team members should feel comfortable bringing up problems and difficult issues when they see them.
Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team
The role of trust
Through the framework provided by Patrick Lencioni, you can cultivate five specific behaviors within your team that contribute to high performance.
Building deep personal trust between you and your team members is essential for healthy or constructive conflict. When team members feel secure in expressing their thoughts and opinions, you gain access to a wider range of insights and perspectives, leading to superior decision-making. With a robust exchange of ideas and viewpoints, team members can commit to decisions more easily and be accountable for their actions, ultimately achieving better results.
On the other hand, when interpersonal trust is lacking, genuine dialogue and constructive conflict become challenging, hindering commitment to decisions. Without commitment, accountability weakens, and without accountability, it becomes difficult to achieve meaningful results.
Trust is nurtured when team members feel comfortable sharing their shortcomings, weaknesses, and mistakes without fear of judgment. As a leader, it is your responsibility to create an empowering environment where team members can freely express themselves and be vulnerable.
To foster trust, you must create a psychologically safe space. This involves promoting open communication, genuinely listening to your team members' concerns and ideas, and being willing to admit your own mistakes.
Signs of trust in a safe environment
Research consistently highlights vulnerability is the key trait of a leader that can foster interpersonal trust. As a leader, it starts with you. Embrace vulnerability and lead by example, showing your team members that it is safe to be authentic and open.
Vulnerability
Vulnerability is often misunderstood and perceived as a weakness, leading us to build emotional barriers that hinder genuine connections and effective problem-solving. Personally, I've struggled with vulnerability for a long time, fearing that admitting I didn't have all the answers would make me appear unintelligent or incapable.
To protect myself from these fears, I instinctively reached for my "emotional armor," unintentionally creating barriers between myself, my colleagues, and the challenges we faced. However, I've come to realise that vulnerability is not a weakness; it is a powerful superpower that can elevate a leader from average to exceptional. Embracing vulnerability requires courage.
I've been surprised by what happens when I show up vulnerable. It is always met with empathy and vulnerability from others. By embracing vulnerability, we unlock the same in others, creating amazing interpersonal bonds and ultimately trust.
Since vulnerability doesn't come naturally to most of us, here are a few strategies to practice showing vulnerability:
Acknowledge your mistakes: Instead of dwelling on your errors and feeling like a failure, view mistakes as opportunities to reveal your vulnerability and forge meaningful connections. Be receptive to feedback from the people you work with and use it as a chance to learn and grow.
For instance, once I unintentionally took over a meeting that wasn't mine. I just could not help myself. I felt the meeting was so poorly ran, I had to intervene. Reflecting on this mistake, I openly discussed how early in my career I struggled with leading meetings effectively. By sharing this vulnerability, I created an avenue for learning and growth within my team by them organising workshops on how to lead meetings effectively within our context.Share your areas of development: After acknowledging your mistakes, it's natural to identify areas for personal development. Engage in discussions with your team members about these areas and openly request their assistance in honing these aspects. Be open to receiving feedback. Interestingly, discussions about personal development tend to evolve into dialogues where team members seek your assistance with their own areas of weakness. This process fosters profound connections and builds trust.
For example, I went through a lengthy journey in learning how to delegate efficiently. At some point along that journey one of my team leads provided me with feedback that my delegation skills were not quit on par yet. I candidly shared this revelation at the time with my other leads and asked for their support. This sparked a constructive conversation about the distinction between "What" and "How." By entrusting the "How" to my leads and focusing on the "What" in our discussions, a noticeable shift in behavior occurred with me delegating to my leads. Later on my leads also adjusted their interactions with their respective teams in a similar vain.Dedicate time to build strong relationships with your team members: While it may feel counterproductive to spend time discussing life rather than purely work-related matters, understanding people and establishing deep connections is vital for effective leadership. It's essential to cultivate strong relationships with each team member, although it doesn't mean you have to be best friends with everyone. Investing time and effort into building these relationships creates an environment where your team feels comfortable following your lead.
Final thougths
By practicing vulnerability through acknowledging mistakes, sharing areas of development, and dedicating time to building strong relationships, you can unleash the power of vulnerability as a leader. It may not come naturally, but with practice, it will become a superpower that transforms your leadership style and will hold exceptional outcomes for your team.
Remember, vulnerability is not a weakness; it is an act of courage that opens the doors to genuine connections, trust, and growth.
This was part 1 of a 2 piece article. Read part 2 here.
