One of a leader’s most critical responsibilities is to create an environment of trust. Trust is the foundation for building collaborative, innovative teams, embracing organizational change, creating a positive energy work culture, and producing results. Employees who work in high-trust organizations are more productive and have more energy at work, suffer less chronic stress, and are happier with their lives – all of which help create high-altitude teams and drive performance. 

Building trust takes time, commitment, and authenticity. Authentic leaders are open, honest, willing to be vulnerable, discuss their values, and provide insight into their own motivations and behaviors. Actions and words must be aligned to build trust – keep promises, agreements, and commitments. If for some reason you need to amend what you have previously agreed to, have a conversation with the individual or your team to ensure that they understand what happened, then invite them to help you form a solution. 

Create an Environment Where Employees Feel Safe to Speak Up

It is important to create a space for open, honest conversations where employees can confidently speak up, make, and learn from mistakes, and feel that they are valued contributors. Psychological safety is critical in helping employees feel comfortable and confident with speaking up. 

Dr. Amy Edmonson defines psychological safety as "a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with questions, ideas, mistakes, or concerns." Psychological safety is a key factor in building trust, and trust increases engagement and performance. A culture where failures are viewed as Learning Moments rather than opportunities to point blame leads to increased creativity and innovation.

Leaders who have a high degree of self-awareness, demonstrate concern for others, and actively solicit questions and ideas while providing a welcoming environment for honest discussion pave the way for a safe and inclusive environment.

Build Trust Through Sincere and Honest Conversations

Sincere and honest conversations with your team helps you gain insight into their concerns, what is important to them, and helps build trust. Recognize that communication is a two-way street, so it is important to remember that conversations are a dialogue, not a monologue.

Trust must be built over time, and it is critical that words and actions align. Employees value transparency and are more likely to stay when they feel that they are seen, heard, and that you make keeping your word a priority. Here are some questions for your team to help you get started:

• What is or is not going well?
• What makes your job easier? What makes it harder?
• What would help improve what is not going well?
• What do effective conversations look like to you? (As leaders, we sometimes get caught up in our own expectations and forget to check in with our employees to find out what theirs are.)
• What ideas do you have to resolve this?
• What can I do that would be most supportive to you?

Demonstrate Care and Concern Through Intentional Listening

Intentional listening means listening with purpose and the intent to take action, which help build trust and psychological safety. Consistently show your team that you care by listening intentionally and then taking specific action on their input. Keep them updated on how their concerns are being addressed. People feel genuinely cared for when they feel seen and heard. 

Update your team on the progress of implementing their ideas and check back in with them to gauge how things are going afterwards. Empowering employees to take ownership of implementation of their ideas increases engagement and buy-in. When acting on a suggestion is not feasible, tell them why rather than staying silent and hoping they will forget. Hint: They will not forget but will make a mental note of the oversight.

Continue to check in with them as situations and business needs influence shifts in job roles, processes, and technology. It is important to note that checking IN is vastly different from checking UP. Here are some Check-IN questions for further conversation:

• What is working well?
• What is not working well?
• What still needs to improve in our communication to make your job easier?
• What did you learn? (Also, a great question to ask yourself!)
• What new strengths did you find?
• Taking what you have learned into consideration, what might you do differently going forward?

Remember to celebrate successes and learnings along the way!