8 Surefire Ways to Build Trust with Your Team Today

As leaders, one of our greatest assets is the ability to be trusted by our team.

No one want to follow, serve or work for an untrustworthy person. Without trust, you can’t run successful events, raise funds for your ministry or special project, encourage others to increase their tithe, bring people into alignment with the vision of your church, ministry or business, and the list goes on.

Trust is hard to gain. Like my dad used to say, “Trust takes years to build and seconds to destroy.” Many business people, especially executives in the C-suite, are inherently distrustful. This has been helpful for them because it has been a safeguard against poor business decisions and less than favorable partnerships.

Yet, if you are a leader of any sort — business, ministry, non-profit — your first priority is to gain the trust of those on your team and maintain that atmosphere by continually setting the tone of one who can be trusted. Here are some things you can begin today that will build trust with those on your team, your congregation, and anyone else you come into contact with.

1. Names — know them (and use them). People love to know that they are not invisible and that they are known. In a world that constantly promotes self-centered pursuits and relationship, you can be the one person who actually knows people by their name, uses it, and makes them feel noticed.
2. Interest — Ask how they are doing (and actually listen). What do people like to talk about most? Themselves. I’m sure you’ve been the victim of the check-and-walk — where someone asks you how you are and continues to walk away. They didn’t truly want to know how you are, but were rather just saying hello. If you check-and-listen, you’ll be one who stands out as a caring person in their lives. This will pay big dividends because not only will they feel heard and cared for, they will buy into you, and not merely your mission. After all, people want to know that you care before they care about what you know.
3. Consistency — Don’t be an emotional roller coaster or a flake. Let your yes be yes and your no be no (Matthew 5:37). Sounds familiar? It should — It was Jesus! In a world that is full of big promises with disappointing returns, consistency shows your team, over time, that you are someone they can truly count on and follow.
4. Repent — Be the first to confess, repent and ask for forgiveness. Pride begets pride, yet humility begets healthy vulnerability. Leaders lead in repentance, therefore it is our responsibility to pursue reconciliation in relationships (John 13:35). You’ll be amazed at how much transformation you’ll see in those you lead when you are the first to humble yourself, trust in the gospel and live from your Christ-centered identity.
5. Outlook — Assume Positive Intent (and operate from that state of mind). How many times have you talked with someone and felt like they were insulting you or were mad at you because of their body language only to find out later that the person wasn’t mad at you at all, but was rather going through something, was upset or preoccupied with thinking about something heavy that was going on in their life, or you simply read them wrong? This has happened to all of us, yet this stems from a desire to be a people pleaser. We need to repent of our people-pleasing nature, and assume that others mean well until proven otherwise.
6. Communicate — Be very clear when giving instruction and in casual conversation (and Over-communicate). On the flip side of the last point, communicating well (or over-communicating) will pay big trust dividends. Although clear and exhaustive communication with others can be more work, it will drastically improve your team’s ability to trust you and will squash the majority, if not all, of their misconceptions.
7. Authenticity — Be transparent about who you are, and don’t try and play the know-it-all or the saint. People with emotional intelligence can smell a “faker” from a mile away. Be up front, be who you are, don’t hold back and you will gain more trust.
8. Confidence — As counterintuitive as it may sound, people trust those who force their own way. People who know what they want, are single-minded about that goal, and are determined to reach it are much easier to trust and to follow because you don’t have to wonder whether or not the person will string you along and drop the mission because of a few bumps in the road or inconvenient hurdles.

At the end of the day, in a world where narcissism and inauthenticity are the order of the day, it’s imperative that we, as believers, create an atmosphere with those in our charge in the business sector and in ministry of trust. Creating an environment of trust will yield dividends that will go far into the future and will set you up for significant success regardless of the field that you are in. It truly is the best currency.