Build and Maintain Trust in Business and at Work

As preparation for The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team (TM) Facilitator Training that I’m attending this week, I reviewed the companion book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. The first dysfunction, an absence of trust, is always a set-up for eventual failure. For any leadership team, an absence of trust creates ripples that undermine productivity and eventually, the viability of an organization at all levels.

How does an absence of trust play out?  A few examples are, including but not limited to:

• High turnover (employees leave managers they don’t trust);
• Difficulty in recruiting top talent (the word gets out fast when trust is absent from the leadership team);
• Wasted time (and payroll dollars) feeding the white noise of gossip, politics and triangling;
• Dissatisfied customers who take their business elsewhere.

How will you lead, build and maintain trust this week, in business and at work?