Establishing trust is central to any functioning team, collaboration or supervision relationship. Becoming a PI and managing a team obviously means that you are no longer responsible for just your workload, you are now expected make progress using the skills and capabilities of others. One of the key components to successfully managing people is building trust. There are two basic types of trust: ‘practical’ and ‘emotional’:
Trust
Trust is reciprocal – consciously work on building and earning trust.
When people don’t trust you, it becomes obvious in their behaviour. They double-check your work, they micro-manage you, they don’t share concerns or opportunities, and they won’t be honest with their feedback. These are just some of the symptoms. Sometimes, it’s because the individual has a low trust threshold, and sometimes it just takes time to earn trust.
Building trust
To consider ways to build and earn trust, take a look at this video featuring two theories to help you think about what you can do to establish trust with your own team (or anyone!).
Following on from the video, look at our download Worked example of the trust equation (pdf).
Previous and next
Go back to the previous section: Developing a vision
Go to the next section: Expectation setting