Trust is the foundation for building strong teams, creating a positive work culture, and producing results.

When people don’t trust you, it shows in their behaviour. They double-check your work, they micro-manage you, and they don’t listen to you or take your leadership seriously. Conversely, employees who trust their colleagues and leaders are more likely to be open, honest, empathetic, collaborative and constructive.

Why Trust Matters

Trust is at the heart of all relationships, in both your personal and professional lives. In business, trust between employers, employees and clients is essential to success. When there is trust in the workplace, employees are more productive, motivated and loyal. When managers can trust their team to work effectively and use initiative, they have more time available to focus on strategic tasks and growing the business.

A Shared Definition of Trust

To define trust, we need to go beyond practical kinds of considerations. A deeper version for employees involves more of an emotional response. This includes knowing that leaders are on “their side”, that they will be treated fairly and with respect and that setbacks will not be met with particularly negative consequences.

Taking Action

Most people take trust for granted. They assume it ‘just happens’ in a relationship, but they couldn’t be more wrong. Most people think of themselves as trustworthy and assume that everyone else will agree. However, others can’t see your thoughts or values, only your actions. Therefore, building trust is about what you do, not what you say.

25 ways to immediately build trust at work:

1. Follow-through on your commitments
2. Take a genuine interest in your colleagues
3. Mentor someone
4. Strive to be and do your best
5. Tell the truth
6. Don’t gossip
7. Keep confidences 
8. Listen well
9. Incorporate the ideas of others
10. Praise people for a job well done
11. Respond to requests
12. Under-promise and over-deliver
13. Walk your talk
14. Stand up for what is right
15. Admit your mistakes
16. Apologise when necessary
17. Constantly build your expertise
18. Build a rapport with others
19. Be inclusive and appreciate diversity
20. Be on time for meetings and appointments
21. Show strong organisational skills
22. Say please and thank you
23. Go above and beyond to help others
24. Be receptive to feedback
25. Be friendly

Trust is an essential building block for a safe and productive workplace. It also has the power to improve employee experience. Trust must be earned from the conscious effort to align your behaviours with your values.

Odyssey Training’s mission is to help emerging and frontline managers achieve positive, long-term behavioural change for themselves and their teams. We achieve this through practical high-quality leadership programs, self-directed action planning and embedded learning support.  Our leadership courses run over one to two days giving you exposure to theories, concepts and real-life examples of managing issues. Our leadership courses teach you the essential skills you need for the workforce including how to deal with difficult conversations, leading teams, managing people performance and two day courses such as Supervision and People Management or Emerging Leaders.