Source: Unsplash – Marvin Meyer
“George, what do you want from me? You keep harassing me with emails on sending out the communique to the 500 staff selected for the programme!”
George was taken aback by this sudden outburst by Sandra when he picked up his phone to receive her call. Being the programme manager, it was his responsibility to follow-up on the action items for the roll out of the new programme to a small percentage of the workforce. He had sent out one email to Sandra to ask if the team is on track with regards to the communique.
“Hi Sandra, thanks for reaching out. Based on the project responsibilities, you are to draft a communique to the selected staff. It’s expected to go out on Thursday. So I sent you an email this morning to find out if we’re on track as we’ve yet to see the draft for review.”
“Why should I write it? Why can’t you write it? You are the programme manager! Isn’t this your job! I don’t have time for this!”
Realising that the team was three days away for the communique to go out, George, after some back and forth discussion with Sandra, agreed to prepare the draft email for the team. The email was eventually reviewed, amended and approved by the various stakeholders. All Sandra had to do was put her email signature on it and send it out from her email account. But that didn’t happen.
The division director noticed this and sent an email to the team directly questioning why the communique had not been sent out despite it being approved. Silence.
A few minutes later, the email was sent out by Sandra, with her email signature on it making her look very good amongst the 500 staff selected for the new programme. In the meantime, George felt, mentally stressed, emotionally deflated and physically drained of his energy trying to grapple with office politics, distrust and an extra piece of work on his plate on top of the other extras.
What happened here? There was accountability as the minutes of meeting did state the roles and responsibilities clearly together with deadlines. Perhaps Sandra was not committed to the plan of action. She could have voiced her concerns at the programme project meetings but George noticed that she didn’t. In fact, she seemed supportive and on board of the plans. Perhaps the underlying issue was the lack of trust in the team.
What does trust in the workplace look like?
“The only way for the leader of a team to create a safe environment for his team members to be vulnerable is by stepping up and doing something that feels unsafe and uncomfortable first. By getting naked before anyone else, by taking the risk of making himself vulnerable with no guarantee that other members of the team will respond in kind, a leader demonstrates an extraordinary level of selflessness and dedication to the team. And that gives him the right, and the confidence, to ask others to do the same.” ~ Patrick Lencioni
Patrick Lencioni states that trust in teams ‘is the confidence among team members that their peers’ intentions are good, and that there is no reason to be protective or careful around the group.’
It requires team members to admit their weaknesses, skill deficiencies, interpersonal shortcomings and mistakes, confident that they will not be used against them. That’s what vulnerability-based trust in a team looks like.
At the same time, they appreciate and leverage on each other’s skills and experiences. They ask for help and allow input from other team members or welcome questions regarding their area of responsibility.
They take risks in providing feedback and offering help while at the same time willingly offer and accept apologies without hesitation.
They hold back their verdicts of a person or their intention, or at least remain neutral, until all the facts are gathered. They focus their time and energy on important issues instead of workplace politics.
And they actually look forward to meetings and other opportunities to work as a group.
What’s the reality?
Well, most of us grew up learning to be competitive and protective over our reputations. So it’s not easy to just turn off our natural instincts so the team can benefit as a whole.
Nearly 4 in 5 people say that their team members are typically not willing to acknowledge their weakness to one another, indicating a pervasive lack of vulnerability-based trust in the workplace.1
What does trust bring to the team?
It’s like a linked chain. When there is trust in a team, there is more freedom to engage in uninhibited conflict around ideas or in other words, freedom to express differing opinions. When that happens, there is a higher commitment to decisions and plans of actions. They hold each other accountable for the deliverables based on the agreed plan and they keep their eyes on the achievement of the collective results.
In the scenario described at the start of this article, perhaps if the team members have vulnerability-based trust without fear of being put down, belittled or slighted, Sandra would have expressed her concern during team meetings about writing the email, whether it be confidence in capturing the essence of the programme or a time crunch issue she was facing at that time due to pending deadlines on other work areas. Perhaps she could have proposed she discuss with George, the programme manager, on the essence of the programme and work together with him on it. However, Sandra’s silence and non-expression at the team discussions made everyone on the team assume that all was well and Sandra would be able to deliver on time.
All is not lost for this team. If they do make the effort to acknowledge their own weaknesses, ask for help, appreciate and leverage on each other’s skills and experience, the team bond would be stronger as the trust between them grows. The question is are they willing to develop this vulnerability-based trust?
“Remember teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.” ~ Patrick Lencioni
©Published by Lifeskills Institute Pte Ltd
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The Five Behaviors® solutions can help you activate your team’s ability to drive results through cohesive teamwork, whether it is with the Personal Development solution which helps individuals learn the skills they need to “team” effectively, or the Team Development solution which helps intact teams gain the know-how to work better together.
Both solutions use the framework of best-selling author Patrick Lencioni’s model for teamwork which focuses on Trust, Conflict, Commitment, Accountability, and Results. This framework is combined with personalised insights to create powerful, customized, and authentic team development solutions that empowers both teams and individuals to make lasting change.
[1]– 2020 State of Teams Report by Wiley Workplace Learning Solutions. A study based on responses from 20,000 employees across a wide array of industries and organisational positions from individual contributors to C-suite executives.