Building communication and trust in your teams

Building communication and trust in your teams.

To improve how teams work together, it is also essential to build trust and improve communication. How do team members relate to each other? Are they tolerant of each others’ working style? One of the most common communication problems in any business is people misunderstanding what other people tell them or what they are trying to say, so communication is a key area to focus on.

According to the Myers Briggs Type Instrument (MBTI) there are 16 types of people all of whom receive and process information differently. Some people need to talk to process what they are thinking; while others need time to reflect. Some people come up with big creative ideas, whereas others are focussed on practical issues. Some people make decisions based on logic and others make them based on their impact on others, and of course, there are organised people versus spontaneous ones.

Team building training sessions not only can reveal how different we all are and how our brains are all wired differently, but the importance of not taking other peoples’ behaviour personally. For example: people often get angry if someone is late and they have to wait for them. They think their time is not being valued and that the person is disrespectful or irresponsible. But, in reality, the person could be late because they are trying to do too much, and it doesn’t have anything to do them. Improving trust and communication is all about understanding and being tolerant and accepting of different personalities in the workplace.

So here are a few tips to rebuild morale and improve communication:

• Have a clear vision. People feel more motivated and united when they have a clear vision and meaning. It’s the opposite of ‘divide and conquer’; if you have an effective, united team, success is inevitable
• Examine the leadership in your company – is coaching or training being used to support leaders and improve their skills?
• What is the impact of the leadership on the staff? Could leadership be damaging morale?
• Encourage your team not to take things personally and to understand that all people are fundamentally different
• Concentrate on understanding others, rather than being understood. In a theoretical world people make logical decisions and commitments, but in the real world they act based on their type preferences, emotions, and unconscious influences. If you are focusing on understanding them, you’ll start building tolerance and taking things less personally
• Trust has been broken with all the changes that have taken place in the past 18 months. It is difficult to work in an environment of uncertainty and chaos. If you focus on building trust, people will be much more likely to cooperate with you
• Manage conflict. There are positive sides to conflict, if handled properly, it could promote innovation, validate the way of working and increase loyalty and quality. But, it has to be managed effectively. Unresolved conflict can create stress and destroy a team.

Excerpts from Marielena Sabatier’s article: ‘Nurturing your Leaders’ posted in Training Zone 1/3/10 Marielena is co-founder of coaching and leadership development firm Inspiring Potential: www.inspiring-potential.com