Organisations and corporate leaders are constantly seeking new ways to be more agile and innovative. However, there is one time-honoured component of success they frequently overlook – Trust.

Trust is an essential component in every part of our lives. It impacts us every day. From our personal relationships, working relationships and even to our relationships with government organisations, businesses, and brands.

Here at MyPeople, we believe trust to be THE critical factor when it comes to team performance, and without it, sustainable team performance is not possible.

Trust is the idea of having confidence in something or someone to act an expected way. For example, we may trust that our team members do not laugh at us when we discuss an idea, or that we trust that a nurse/policeman may behave in a certain way.

Like in personal relationships, when trust is broken, or there is a lack of trust, it can be hard to build.

“A lack of trust in the workplace is the virus that can create a diseased workplace culture. It often begins with leadership and spreads throughout the team, leading to a cycle of unhealthy responses that affect engagement and productivity.”

Where there is low trust, a culture is created in which everyone fights for themselves. This is because they are forced to protect themselves and their own interests, rather than aiming for team or organisational success (collective success).

Where there is high trust, communication flourishes, productivity soars and stress levels fall leading to collaboration and growth becoming the norm.

Trust is achieved through a positive company culture that encourages listening, respect and positive team relationships. Where empathy and humility are encouraged, and one in which there is not a culture of blame…but rather a culture of collaboration and support.

We won’t go into too much depth here but look out for our next blog post on how to increase levels of trust, and visit our YouTube channel to view our series of webinars focusing on trust.

A study in 2017, found that people at high-trust companies, when compared to people at low-trust companies were:

• 74% less stressed
• Had 106% more energy at work
• Had 50% higher productivity
• Had 13% fewer sick days
• Were 76% more engaged
• Had 29% more satisfaction with their lives
• Had 40% less burnout

These statistics illustrate just how important trust and trustworthiness become. A high trust environment boosts morale, boosts productivity, impacts team cohesion, team behaviours and team relationships, and leads teams to be more likely to collaborate successfully.

When team members are happier, less stressed, and feel like they contribute positively to the organisation, they are more likely to stay in their jobs and be more engaged.

When your employees are more engaged, motivated, and collaborate successfully with their team members, it boosts productivity and performance.

When your team continues to show these behaviours consistently over time, team performance also consistently improves.

Therefore, building trust is essential. But also, that new employees are recruited to not only do ‘their job’, but to ‘fit’ into your existing teams, and demonstrate high ‘trustworthiness’. This video from Simon Sinek summarises the importance of a team member with high ‘trustworthiness’ over an individual high performer. As he points out, most metrics in work environments focus on performance outputs, when in fact organisations need to understand their people, understand their teams, and measure trust, in order to be there for the ‘long game’.

Here at MyPeople we are all about the ‘long game’. From our heritage in elite sport, we know to build long-term sustainable performance, you need to start by building trust – and we have been right behind many successful teams, measuring and building trust for over 20 years.

Contact us to find out more about how to measure and build trust at your organisation.