Trust_in_a_Team

When working in teams, is trust assumed or do team members have to earn trust' In human society, any kind of successful relationship is built upon solid foundation of trust. This is the most important factor in many aspects of our life like building a family, building a marriage, building a team and relationship etc. In a team environment, the ideal situation would be that everyone trusts each other. But in reality the situation is little bit different. The perception of trust changes in an individual and is mostly guided by one’s experiences in life. In the first job after coming out of school, I had a neutral feeling (meaning trust was assumed) toward everyone else in my team. As days passed by I started building some impression about each team member and my manager. Everyday’s experience would either add or subtract some points from the initial impression. At the end of my job in that company I realized that team members have to earn trust. This is the same thing that I experienced at other companies as well. In today’s global environment, one team can have members from different countries and culture. In this scenario, the best option would be to have a neutral attitude towards others. After working with the team members for sometime, monitoring their behavior under different situation, impression can be built about each of them. This ultimately would translate to team members earning trust vs distrust status. Consider how trust is lost when working in teams and how to keep trust among team members. Trust in a working environment is influenced by the work culture. In an environment where one is trying to please one’s boss by whatever means, trust has very little value. Before taking my first job, I was under the impression that the only person whom you can trust by default would be the manager. Trust for other team members would be built over a period of time. Initial days in a job, team members won’t be as open with the new hire as one would expect them to. New hires can only look toward the manager or mentor for any guidance. I had the misfortune to experience such an incident when my manager was taking credit for the work which I had done. I think this was caused by the work culture in that company starting all the way from the CEO (Carr, 1998). Carr (1998) states that “People who are honest and act in a manner consistent with their words are trustworthy as are companies who are consistent in their actions and communications with customers, vendors and employees alike” (p26). I had similar experience in another company. Everyone trusted each other in the team of 20 members. There was lot of co-operation between the members while doing the project work. At the end our entire team was rewarded for our performance. However, the general feeling that I have is, in today’s environment, sometimes “trust” takes a back seat when team members compete with each other. We can study the human behavior if we work in a small team. I worked on some of the projects where we had two to three members. During that time, instead of identifying an idea as a team’s idea, few of the members used to take credit for any new thing that was done on the project. Trying to influence one’s manager through this style of working is common in current workplace. In order to keep trust among team members, the team leader or manager should have a clear vision about the goals and should set the expectations right for each member at the beginning of the project. Manager should also have a clear understanding of trends, uncertainties, risks, and rewards. Open communication also helps in building trust. Discussing an issue as a team issue and seeking help from the team members also helps in building the relationship. In any project, manager can improve the trusting relationship by setting an achievable goal for the team and rewarding the team upon successfully exceeding his expectations. Trust can be built among the team members with ease in a work culture, where team performance is valued more than individual performance. Reference: Carr, R. (1998). Trust is an important ingredient in the recipe for successful business. Business Journal Serving Fresno & the Central San Joaquin Valley; 03/16/98, Issue 322277, p26, 1/3p. Retrieved from EBSCO host database.