Vulnerability-Based Trust: The Five Keys to High-Performance Teams

In athletics, it’s been said that a team is only as strong as it’s weakest player. The same principle can be applied in business. The cohesiveness of your team can make or break your project. In order to realize your objective with success, a high-performance team is necessary.

While knowledge, experience, and the ability to communicate, are essential building blocks for team-members, the true test of any successful team is their ability to rise above individual egos, combine their strengths, and create an atmosphere of trust.

 Trust ensures accountability in members of the team; you understand your team is counting on you. When members of the team trust each other in their vulnerability, the common objective becomes bigger than each person’s individual need. Establishing vulnerability-based trust is fundamental in the formation of high-functioning teams.

Management should take the lead in building trust within the team. Achieving effective teamwork can be realized by conquering common pitfalls, through a series of five key actions. When leadership implements these strategies, a high-performance team is virtually ensured.

Build Trust

Trust, in a corporate environment, is often interpreted as being able to rely on an individual to get the job done. You’re confident in their ability to complete a task and, based on previous performance, know the outcome will be achieved, as is suggested in the book, “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable” by Patrick Lencioni.

According to Lencioni, vulnerability based trust allows group members to share their skills, and display their weaknesses, without fear of reproach. These bonds of acceptance are forged over time and through shared experiences. However, it’s possible to accelerate this trust-building process through interpersonal exercises, such as having the members offer a brief bio, or share a silver lining to an adverse situation.

Another effective way to establish trust is to engage team members in an off-site excursion. This can be a lunch and learn event, a recreational outing, such as a local baseball game, or even participating in a 5k for charity. Your objective is to humanize the relationship between members, which improves understanding and forges the vulnerability trust bond.

Overcome Conflict

In any relationship, conflict can create distrust. Fear of conflict is also detrimental to building an atmosphere of trust. Most conflict arises when passions run high and a lively conversation takes a turn in the wrong direction.

In order to overcome destructive conflict, you must first recognize one another’s “hot buttons”. Consider having each member use a conflict recognition tool, such as the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument. Once everyone recognizes their individual pattern, steps can be taken to alter behavior.

Another method for overcoming conflict is to bring disagreements immediately to the surface, to be dealt with in a healthy conversation. Leadership should never attempt to resolve the conflict. It’s vital to the team building process that participants come to a resolution on their own.

Confidence in Decision-Making

Only through vulnerability based trust will your members feel comfortable airing their opinion. Opinions must be considered if the team is to come to a unified decision. Solid decision-making is a hallmark of the high-functioning team.

Intentions need to be clearly stated, while the commitment should be somewhat flexible, based on the consensus of the group. When the group believes their fellow team members’ intentions come from a good place, it’s much easier for all to voice opinions, exchange ideas, and realize a positive outcome.

Focus your initial meeting on low-risk situations, in order to assess the decision-making skills of the group. Review your team’s decisions before you conclude your meeting, determine the best way to achieve the support of leadership, and confirm all deadlines.

Stress Accountability

Accountability is a great measure of the high-performance team. Without solid decision-making, conflict resolution, and a willingness to let your guard down, the team will not form the cohesive bond necessary to be accountable. With vulnerability based trust, members of the group watch out for each other.

When members of the group sincerely don’t want to let each other down, accountability is natural. Publishing objectives, for all to see, allows members to keep each other on track. 360 progress reviews, held regularly, also keep peer accountability active. Rewarding the entire team when the objective is achieved is a positive move toward keeping accountability in check.

Focus on Results

When accountability isn’t stressed, the results can be disastrous. Without vulnerability based trust, each individual member’s ego, the need for status and a boost to career become the focus, placing the objective of the group in the periphery.

Focusing on clearly defined goals, and specified deadlines, will result in team members coming together to achieve success, for the benefit of all. Reward the team’s contributions to the success of the project. Know who is self-focused, so that you can change this pattern of behavior. Most importantly, lead by example. Don’t forsake the commitment of the team to advance your personal agenda.

Vulnerability-based trust is the glue that binds the group and sets them on the path to high-performance status. Recognizing the team as a whole, rewarding positive outcomes, and derailing any negative conflict is the test of successful leadership. Allow yourself to be vulnerable in the team setting, and you’ll be setting the example-the first step in building a strong, and high functioning team.