Building trust in your team is an important aspect of your leadership journey.

I reflect upon a conversation I was having the other day with an employee. He was expressing information on building trust within his workplace, his leader and the other teams.

This man, let’s call him John, and his team mates work on a mine and as you probably are aware there are dangers that need to be addressed each day. That is why it is critical this team respects each other, and has each other’s back. This team does, they know that if a mistake is made they are supported. They know they trust their Supervisor, and each other. The team is small; only 6 people and they know each other’s weaknesses and strengths. Each person respects the other, they talk openly, ask questions, create innovative solutions and they all work like clockwork each shift to achieve the maximum they can on their shift. John loves his work, and working with his team.

The story I was told was not about John’s team, but another one that does similar work, on the same shift. The two teams need to work together, and see each other work each shift, yet they are under differing reporting structures. Let’s call them Team A – John’s team, and Team B the other one.

Team B needed to perform a task it was something that took time and was slow going. A couple of the members knew there was a better and quicker way, yet they didn’t feel comfortable speaking up. They were afraid to share their concerns about the way they had to perform their task, and resisted asking their Supervisor the challenging questions.

Afterwards in the crib room, John was told about this “better way”. He was excited and could see the possibilities. Yet, even though he tried, he couldn’t encourage the Team B members to speak up.

What if they actually were suggesting innovative ideas?

What if they were so worried about rejection, or a negative fallout they never said anything?

The conversation with me and John, had moved onto the topic of psychological safety. He recognised that he and his team had the belief that they wouldn’t be punished if they spoke up. Yet Team B was the opposite. He knew they all bitched about the others on their team, he knew some members tried to get out of doing work, and took shortcuts which could impact the physical safety of others. He also knew it wasn’t a team he ever wanted to be part of.

We were reflecting on the difference between the two teams. Team A had psychological safety.

Team B didn’t, and by the sounds of it, could also be impacting on physical safety – although I have no proof, so I’m not going there.

As a leader we all want to have Team A – a team that respects one another and gets the outcome done on time.

So why does Team B exit?

The leader didn’t build the trust of his team. It is said that often he broke any trust that had been built. They had no psychological safety.

The core of psychological safety is about creating a safe space where each person can share their views, thoughts and feelings without being judged, or any repercussion.