What have you seen happen when working on a team where the leader isn’t trusted? Or when team members don’t trust each other? I’ve been there and it’s not pretty. In fact, it’s absolutely exhausting, demoralizing and depressing.

When trust is absent, people don’t share information, they aren’t invested in the team goals, they undermine colleagues and they play it safe.

But think about what happens when trust is present on your team. You see people do their best work, build lifelong relationships, align around common goals, take risks, have each other’s backs, and communicate openly and honestly.

I recently came across an article in the Harvard Business Review that discussed the neuroscience of trust. In the article, the researcher explains that trust on teams can only exist if the organization focuses on building a culture of trust. And in those companies that put a focus on building trust, they experience less turnover and more loyalty, higher levels of productivity and satisfaction, and they notice that people have more energy, suffer less stress and are genuinely happier with their life and their work.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. But even though having a culture of trust makes common sense, it’s not common practice.

The article details years of research dedicated to understanding the neuroscience of trust, by identifying the promoters and inhibitors of oxytocin and stress hormones. Based on the research, the author identified key management behaviors that foster trust. My favorite “trust-fostering” behaviors that leaders should focus on include:

• Giving people more control over how they do their work
• Providing recognition that takes into account what is meaningful for each individual
• Put more intentionality into building relationships
• Be more vulnerable with your team

I’ve been lucky over the past 15 years to work with hundreds of leaders and teams on building trust and I’ve found that healthy, positive relationships come from having an accurate understanding of yourself and others. Using the DISC personality assessment with over 15,000 leaders and teams has created communication breakthroughs and greater understanding and trust between teams and leaders faster than anything else I’ve experienced in 15 years.

If you are interested in exploring how to build a culture of trust in your organization or on your team, please reach out. We are also excited to announce that Powers Resource Center is hosting a DISC certification event this September in beautiful Boulder, Colorado. Space is limited. Learn more by visiting our Everything DiSC Certification Workshops registration page.