We’ve talked a lot about trust this month – how to gain trust, why you need it and how to keep it. But trust needs to go further than just between you and your team. It needs to be part of the team culture, with all members trusting each other.

How do you build that culture of trust?

I love Rohan Dredge’s model which includes three elements:

• “Intention – The deep place of values and motive that shapes our engagement with one another.
• Behaviour – Our actions. How we choose to outwork the priorities we have agreed on.
• Relationships – The glue that connects teams and makes progress possible and visible.”

We’ve looked at intention, and believing people have the best motives for their actions. We’ve looked at behaviour, especially vulnerability and authenticity, and doing what we said we’d do.

Now let’s look at relationships; a key driver of culture building. When we build relationships, we get to know and understand each other. When we build solid relationships, our work performance improves. Why is that?

Well, neuroscience tells us it’s to do with the hormone, oxytocin, which has also been called the “trust hormone” and  “love hormone.” It seems to increase as we start to build closer relationships, which makes sense.

The better you know someone, the stronger your ability to assess them as worthy (or not) of your trust. A LinkedIn study shows that 46% of professionals worldwide believe that work friends are important to their overall happiness. When you’re happy, your trust hormone increases along with your personal and team performance. The study says, “It’s much easier to share feedback with someone if you have built up a solid rapport, or ask someone for advice if you have invested in the relationship.”

So how can you help your team build relationships?

• Give them space to work as a team without you hovering over them.
• Spend time chatting informally with the team and catching up with each member.
• Create situations where the team can socialise without having to talk about work.’
• Show your interest in each person. Find out the names of their children or what they do on weekends. Get personal but not invasive.
• Show your trust by giving your people some autonomy.

You can see how it all hangs together, can’t you?

Trust is a cycle. You can win it or lose it, and it all comes down to being honest and consistent in what you say and do.

To win trust, you first need to give it. Are you ready to do that?