I have often noted how trust is the foundation of any long-lasting, high-performance board or team. This excellent article by HBR asks the questions: How much do you really trust your team, and how much do they trust you? It then provides some ideas for building trust levels in various areas: https://bit.ly/AspireMCL091
At heart, healthy, trusting relations stem from a proper understanding of ourselves and others (motivations, preferred behaviours, reactions to conflict, etc.) and a willingness to be vulnerable in dealings with other team members, i.e. being unafraid to say things such as "Your idea is better", "I could have done that differently", etc. Psychometric tools such as SDI2.0 and DiSC can be a real help here as they surface a lot of usable information for both the subject and his/her colleagues. When running workshops for boards or teams, I have often observed the 'ah-ha moments' when delegates finally understand why people behave as they do and how they can thus build better and more productive relationships with each other.
If your board or team is showing any symptoms similar to those in the article or in this list, you need to take action (or be prepared to live with constant underperformance):
Members are well-meaning and polite but are slow to collaborate or share information to achieve goals.
You often find it easier to just do the work yourself rather than delegating it.
You believe you have to micro-manage important work for fear it will not get done properly otherwise.
You come back from holiday to find a full inbox and a number of decisions to be made when the team could have legitimately acted already.
Most members focus almost exclusively on their own (or their teams) results rather than the corporate good.
Etc.
Building trust starts with the leader who must model the required behaviours, understand how to equip team members to develop this competence and hold them to account for doing so.
Aspire MCL focuses on building high-performance leaders and teams. Our coaching and facilitation programmes are tailored to help each client address their own unique opportunities and issues. Get in touch today for a free, no-obligation initial consultation and take the first step to unleashing your potential.