Trust: the belief that someone is reliable, good, honest or effective (Merriam-Webster). Healthy ministry teams make trust building a priority. Patrick Lencioni, one of today’s best writers on leadership, believes that absence of trust is the biggest problem among dysfunctional teams (see his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team). Stephen M. R. Covey wrote an entire book that shows how teams can build trust called The Speed of Trust. So, how do you know if your team has a deficit? This post answers that question.
Honestly answer these questions to gauge if you have a trust deficit in your team.
- Does a spirit of suspicion lurk in team members’ minds?
- Do team members overly rely on email in lieu of talking?
- Do team members often wear facades?
- Is there too much “happy talk” which masks true problems?
- Are team members reluctant to share their honest feelings and opinions?
- Do team members resist meeting together?
- Has the team lost enthusiasm?
- Has grumbling and complaining become the norm?
- Is the leader inconsistent?
- Do some team members intentionally withhold information from others?
How did you do? If you answered yes to more than one or two questions, your team may be facing a trust deficit.
So how do you rebuild trust?
In the posts below I suggest a few ideas on building trust. Here’s what I suggest as a first step, though. Get the book The Speed of Trust for you and your team and read it. It’s a great read. Here’s a summary of the book to get you started.
What other behaviors have you seen that may indicate lack of trust in a team?
