What is team trust?

This week, the Daily Tip will discuss trust, that elusive quality at the heart of high functioning, cohesive teams.

In The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni gives a useful definition of this overused, misunderstood, and misused word:

“In the context of building a team, trust is the confidence among team members that their peers’ intentions are good, and that there is no reason to be protective or careful around the group.”

Teams without trust conceal weaknesses, hesitate to ask for help, jump to conclusions, fail to recognize and utilize others’ skills, waste time managing behaviors for effect, hold grudges, and dread meetings.

Teams with trust admit weaknesses and mistakes, ask for help, accept questions and input about their areas of responsibility, give each other the benefit of the doubt before arriving at negative conclusions, take risks in offering feedback and assistance, appreciate and tap into each other’s skills and experiences, focus time and energy on tasks over politics, offer and accept apologies, and look forward to meetings and other opportunities to work as a group.

So how can we trust each other? We’ll talk about that in tomorrow’s Daily Tip.