1 Ingredient To Build Cohesive, High-Performing Teams Today

The most important ingredient for achieving cohesive, high-performing teams can be summed up in just one word: trust.

Trust is the magic glue that keeps you together when things get tough. Trust enables two-way communication and knits together individuals with different approaches to work and problem-solving to form a cohesive, strong company fabric.

In addition, trust opens up a team’s talents and creativity, and ultimately, it enables a team and a company to win in the marketplace. Trust takes time to create but can easily slip away. If this happens, you must work diligently to recreate it.

Establish Trust to Build High-Performing Teams

These principles can help you establish trust:

1. Do not criticize, condemn, or complain. This is not always easy in business or in personal life. Look for the positives in people at work and at home, which almost always results in an improved relationship.
2. Be generous with praise. Whenever people do an excellent job by working hard or delivering a great experience to customers, make sure they know their efforts are appreciated. Too many managers and executives are indifferent to the achievements of others.
3. Remember their name. As Carnegie wrote, “A person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” A simple rule but a powerful one. Use people’s names in conversations as often as you can—it is a sign of respect and that you value them.
4. Be genuinely interested in other people. The best way to connect with people is to learn about them.
5. Be quick to acknowledge your own mistakes. Summing up another of Carnegie’s lessons, author Forbes contributor Frances Bridges points out, “Having strong and stable personal and professional relationships relies on you taking responsibility for your actions, especially your mistakes. Nothing helps end tension or a disagreement more than a swift acknowledgment and apology on your part.”
6. Own up to your mistakes. We all make them. Acknowledging them creates a strong bond with colleagues.

Take responsibility

Executives and managers should take full responsibility for their actions and decisions. Experience has taught us that this is the best way to build and maintain trust in the company.

Google analysts examined dozens of teams and interviewed hundreds of executives, team leaders, and team members. The researchers then evaluated team effectiveness in four different ways: (1) executive evaluation of the team, (2) team leader evaluation of the team, (3) team member evaluation of the team, and (4) sales performance against quarterly quota.

What did they find? By measuring participant and leader perceptions against actual sales performance data, they concluded that what really mattered was not so much who was on the team, but how the team worked together. And the most important factor contributing to a team working well together? You guessed it—trust.

The Elements of Trust

First, a leader and all team members must bring their authentic selves to work every day. This may seem obvious, but in business employees often believe they should hide their feelings and be “professional.”

But let’s be honest: This is not who most of us really are. Thinking of yourself as a “professional” can cause you to suppress your emotions and natural instincts. When you are authentic, you spontaneously and effectively establish rapport, trust and relationships with others. When you share something personal and behave naturally, you will be a catalyst for others to do the same. Authentic behavior can be modeled and encouraged.

Being a leader means disclosing your honest feelings when things are going well and (equally important) when they are not going well. If you need help, ask for it. Modeling this behavior allows other team members to do the same. For such honesty to occur, you must intentionally create a safe place for employees.

Real-Work Example

Recently one of our software developers — a brilliant engineer — was stuck on an architecture design problem. He spun his wheels for weeks, afraid to admit to the team that he couldn’t find a solution. Finally, when questioned at a meeting as to why he was so far behind the deadline for the project, he confessed his bewilderment about what to do. Members of the team came to his assistance and within an hour the issue was solved.

This positive result occurred because we’d created a safe space and established an environment where failure isn’t punished—it’s simply the start of a new conversation. Creating a safe space requires effort. It requires consistency. And it requires a commitment to supporting your teams—not just when they succeed but especially when they’re struggling.

Make Meetings a Safe Space

At Infragistics, we have gone beyond just proclaiming that meetings are safe spaces to discuss feelings; we have consciously designed our building in ways that actively promote feelings of warmth, community, and openness. This extends to the colors of walls and the use of wooden floors and bookcases and comfortable chairs and sofas. We have created a number of small rooms where groups of four to six employees can meet and collaborate. Behind the building, we have “the bamboo room”—a backyard with teak furniture, music, and lots of food. What better place to relax and connect with your team? It’s good for business and makes getting work done fun!

While the responsibility of creating trust starts with the team or company leader, everyone must be involved. Each person’s behavior positively or negatively influences others on the team. Everyone must create an environment that feels as if “we are in this together” to get things done and leverage the strength of the team. After all, trust takes a long time to build but only an instant to lose.