Three dimensions of trust with your teammates
Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash
Trust is defined in multiple ways in different places and each of us probably have our own interpretation. For this post, I'm basing the discussion on the American Psychological Association's definition of trust:
"The degree to which each party feels that they can depend on the other party to do what they say they will do."
That is about as evidence based as this note is going to get. From here, I'm presenting a perspective that I hope will stimulate some thinking and discussion in your teams. What I am not doing is suggesting that any of this is based on research! With that caveat (which incidentally is an attempt to establish or retain trust with you as a reader), here is what I'm thinking.
In a conversation with a leader this week, we were exploring trust with her team. As we explored it further, we realised that there were (at least) three dimensions that she could consider trust.
The level of trust that she had in her team.
The level of trust that her team had in her.
The level of trust that she had in herself.
I think these dimensions play out for all of us. We can benefit from high levels trust on all three dimensions - how much you trust others, how much others trust you and how much you trust yourself.
Of the three dimensions here, I think the one that we often pay least attention to is how much we trust ourselves.
I caught a bit of Adele's interview with Oprah this week and one thing they were talking about was how Adele's new romantic relationship was the first time that she had felt like she loved herself in a way that let her love her new partner - and be loved by him. A weird tangent, but I think there are parallels for trust in teams.
If loving yourself lets you better love and be loved...could the key to developing trust in our teams be learning to trust ourselves a little more? Could that make it easier for us to trust others and be trusted by others?
No answers this week, but hopefully some useful questions for you and your teams to consider. Here are some things for you to consider both individually and in your teams this week:
What role do you think that trusting yourself has in fostering trust in your teams?
How can you develop a deeper sense of trust in yourself?
I'd love to hear your thoughts.