Organizations can only achieve their goals when team members have mutual trust and are able to communicate with each other effectively. But building trust and practicing effective communication is easier said than done, especially when looking to grow a small team.
To build trust and communication in the workplace, leaders must be able to trust their teams first. Leaders must also learn to gather (and review) feedback, manage conflict, embrace transparency, nurture accountability, and appreciate team members.
If you are leading a team, read on to learn 10 ways to build trust and communication in the workplace.
10 Best Ways to Build Trust and Communication in the Workplace
Building trust and effective communication takes hard work and time. Startups and small teams tend to be more complacent when it comes to building these essential tools (often more focused on the product). But the truth is that smaller organizations need to work hard to foster an environment where trust and communication are a normal part of how things are run.
Trust Your Team
The first thing that leaders should bear in mind is that people don’t trust people that don’t trust them. Have you ever experienced working with a boss who tried to micromanage every part of your day or who checked and cross-checked every minute detail of your output?
Horrible, isn’t it? It’s because it sends out a clear message that your boss doesn’t trust you. What’s worse, it’s like they expect you to mess up, and so they feel the need to check everything that you do.
But when you work with a boss who understands that you were hired because you’re skilled enough, experienced, and knowledgeable, it’s easy to reciprocate that trust–and work hard to prove that they made the right decision to hire you.
Even in business, it’s true what they say: if you want to receive something, you have to first be willing to give it. Remember why your team members were hired in the first place. Trust that they are more than capable of doing their job well.
Besides, it will be a lot easier on you and give you more time to do the things that you actually need to do.
Check out this article on the 11 reasons leaders must trust their team members.
Gather Feedback
The next thing to remember is that feedback is necessary. It’s often hard for leaders to take feedback and act on it, and it’s understandable because not all feedback is pleasant.
In fact, most feedback will be painful to hear. You may be giving it your best, and you may think that your team appreciates how you run things, so it can be a blow to find out they don’t think so.
In fact, most feedback will be painful to hear.
But feedback is necessary for growth. It’s how you’re able to see your weaknesses and learn crucial areas that need improvement.
This is why it’s essential to provide avenues where team members can give feedback without fear of being punished for being honest. But don’t stop there.
Make sure to act on the feedback that you receive to improve your leadership, work culture, and even relationships among team members.
You wouldn’t want team members feeling that giving feedback is futile as it won’t be acted upon. Unless you incorporate feedback into your leadership, employees will soon feel that giving any is useless.
Strive To Be Emotionally Intelligent
Being a bossy or arrogant leader toward your team members will not only make the workplace uncomfortable and psychologically unsafe but will also hinder trust-building and any communication strategies that you may have in place.
After all, no one wants to communicate with a leader they dislike. And no one will trust a leader that cannot empathize with other team members, especially lower-ranking ones.
So if you’ve been running the workplace with iron fists, disregarding your team members’ feelings and inputs, then you’re doing it absolutely wrong.
You may convince people to get things done now–but they will most likely no longer be around a few months from now to continue doing the job. And while they’re on board, chances are they won’t be happy to give the job their best.
Remember that team members are also people–they have problems and go through ups and downs. Before pushing them to give their 100 percent at work, make sure that you’re capable of connecting with them on a personal level.
This doesn’t mean you have to share secrets or discuss personal issues with each other. It only means that you should be able to empathize with your employees, especially when going through difficult periods.
To work on developing emotional intelligence, you can practice the following:
- Practice self-awareness by journaling or paying attention to your opinions and feelings
- Listen more than you speak
- Refrain from drawing conclusions about people right away but, instead, take time to understand
- Appreciate others and what they do
- Be open to different perspectives, especially those that differ from your own
- Do things that are outside of your comfort zone
- Make an effort to relate with people
- Pay attention to your own (and others’) tone of voice and body language when communicating.
Improving emotional intelligence is not an overnight thing. It may be a never-ending process where you continuously grow and become better little by little. Don’t be frustrated with yourself when you think you’re not doing everything right. Good things take time.
Learn How To Manage Conflict
When conflict occurs, people trust those that are able to maintain a clear head. No team will be so perfect as to never go through periods of conflict. But what matters is how you, as a leader, can navigate these sticky situations smoothly and in a way that fosters cooperation and mutual respect.
But that is easier said than done. When conflicts occur, especially those that occur between leaders and team members, they can be very tricky to manage. What usually happens is when conflict erupts, parties involved have strained relationships that never quite go back to the way they were before.
Thankfully, it’s possible to manage conflict–or else no leader would have been able to stay for longer than a year! Here are some tips on how you can manage conflict:
- Establish proper communication channels. Team members should be able to resolve conflict on their own. But when the issue is larger than they can handle, they should have clear-cut channels through which they can communicate their concerns.
- Maintain a neutral attitude. By staying neutral, you are able to hear both sides objectively. You also avoid resentment from those that you don’t side with and effectively communicate that you’re after the resolution, not siding with anyone in particular.
- Provide avenues for dialogue. Provide a place and time for open discussion to take place in a positive, honest, and respectful way. You can ensure this by establishing the rules of the discussion before it takes place.
- Maintain a sense of humor. Most conflicts stem from solvable disagreements and are often not serious concerns. So, maintain a positive attitude, even keep your sense of humor throughout conflict resolution to keep emotions from raging when they don’t have to.
Here are eight ways managers should communicate to build trust.
Be Transparent and Honest
Many leaders don’t appreciate the impact that their honesty and transparency have on their teams. This is true in large corporations, but it’s even felt more in small teams of ten people or less. People need to know where they’re going, why they’re going in that direction, and how they’re going to get there.
Honesty and transparency about how the business is going, understanding strategies that will affect the team’s status or activities, and what the plans are for the future help a great deal in ensuring team members trust their leaders.
If you know exactly what’s going on, and are convinced that it’s the best way to go, then it won’t be hard for you to stay on board.
And even (or maybe more importantly) when the situation is bleak, such as if the company is losing a lot of money or planning to cut costs, the team has to know. People will eventually find out what’s going on.
And it won’t help in trust-building when you keep saying that things are looking great when team members sense that something is terribly wrong.
During times of crisis is when you need your team’s full trust and support. So you have to trust them enough to let them know what’s going on. Let them in on what’s the best course of action, and pay attention to how they feel about your plans.
And when you overcome these seasons, you’ll see that your team will be able to trust you even more because of your honesty and openness.
Here's a quick test to see if your leadership is dishonest!
Nurture a Culture of Accountability
There is nothing that can ruin an organization more than corruption–when people do dishonest (even criminal) things and are not afraid of getting caught or being punished because everybody is doing it anyway.
In such an environment, no trust can grow. Effective communication cannot happen when team members are dishonest with each other.
So to build trust and communication, nurture a culture of accountability where each team member has ownership of their work and all that it entails–from time management to use of company resources to relationships with other team members.
Be empathetic toward people and strive to listen before drawing conclusions, but, at the same time, be firm about implementing consequences for violations. The same level of accountability should be given to you as the leader as well (and perhaps even greater). Because unless your team members realize that you are not above the rules, accountability will mean nothing to them.
It doesn’t have to be just regarding major issues, like big offenses against company policies. It can also look like owning up to your mistakes when you realize you’ve made the wrong projections or your plan wasn’t working.
When you own up and apologize for your mistakes instead of covering them up, you get to foster respect and trust.
But aside from that, you get to model the kind of employees they should be.
In the military, we call this taking extreme ownership, and there are three signs that you're not taking enough ownership.
Practice What You Preach
It’s awfully hard, perhaps even impossible, to trust a leader who says one thing but does another. When you say everyone should come to work on time, but you’re often an hour late, no one will trust what you say.
Worse, they will imitate your behavior because if the boss doesn’t mind keeping everyone waiting, why should they be on time?
So more than being able to give a good pep talk, more than telling people what to do and how to behave, model how you expect other employees to behave. It’s the most effective strategy when you want to change a culture or a corporate attitude.
If you’re trying to tackle a huge tardiness issue, for example, the best thing to do is to come to work on time–all the time.
Appreciate Your Team
To build trust and improve communication at the workplace, it’s vital to appreciate even the smallest wins.
Remember, your team is not just a group of professionals paid to perform certain tasks. They are people who show up to work even when they have issues at home that they would rather be fixing.
Don’t lose sight of your team’s humanity. Don’t treat them like robots that run on command. Allow them to feel appreciated by giving them a simple “Good job!” when their report is outstanding or a pat on the back when they reach their targets.
For large-scale goals, you can take things a notch further by offering greater rewards. A gift package, salary increments, or even a simple getaway can do a lot to foster positivity in the workplace. Although beware, as these can also create unwanted competition if not done right.
When people feel seen and heard, it’s easier for them to trust their leaders and communicate. And what’s more, it helps keep them motivated to do even better.
Conclusion
Building trust and communication in the workplace is no easy feat. It takes determination, time, and effort.
And more often than not, it requires work, self-reflection, and self-assessment from the leaders themselves. You can’t force people to trust you just because you have a position of leadership. You’ll have to earn your employees’ trust and foster a culture of transparent communication.
