Building Trusting Relationships within Your Foundation Team
- Lori Counts, FAHP, CFRE
- Apr 30
- 3 min read
Trust in the workplace is essential for organizations and teams to thrive. It is a concept that refers to the mutual respect and psychological safety that exists between employees and management. Without it, workers are demotivated and less productive. It doesn’t take intense studies to highlight this, but organizations have finally evolved to recognize that how we communicate and prioritize our teammates' well-being is essential to success. In fact, research published in Harvard Business Review shows that employees at high-trust companies report 74% less stress, 50% higher productivity and 106% more energy at work than individuals at low-trust companies.¹ When employees trust their colleagues and leaders, they feel empowered to share ideas, which drives innovation and growth. A strong culture of trust enhances engagement, retention and teamwork, ultimately contributing to an organization’s success. Here are some key strategies for building trust within your team:
Foster Genuine Relationships
Getting to know your team on a personal level and building relationships with them helps to create a climate of trust. Leaders should strive to create an environment of enthusiasm, joy and excellence while communicating high expectations and fostering positive attitudes about people and the work that they do. Create an environment that is joyful. Convey a sense of humor. Look for opportunities to make work fun. Encourage people to get to know each other outside of the workplace. As our workplaces have become hybrid environments, this is even more critical to building a healthy culture. Digital communication and tools for informal interaction, such as Slack, are important tools to ensure trust is maintained virtually.
Encourage Personal Accountability
Personal accountability and meeting deadlines enhance trust. When people know they can count on their colleagues to deliver on their promise, collaboration and trust are enhanced within the team. As a leader, encourage accountability with your team. Reward people through recognition when deadlines are met, assignments are completed and goals are achieved.
Clarify Individual Roles and Team Expectations
Ensure each team member has a clear set of expectations that clarifies their role. Then share with the team. If everyone understands the goals set for each team member, it helps to better understand how the team can work together. Regular check-ins provide opportunities to clarify expectations and resolve misunderstandings. When there is a misunderstanding about role expectations, work with the team to resolve it.
Encourage Innovative Thinking
While role clarity and expectations are very important, do not lose sight of inviting creativity. Openly recognize people who attempt to go beyond what is expected of them. Acknowledge and encourage all ideas that are brought forward even if not immediately acted upon. Encourage people to think beyond the current way of doing things. Invite your team to challenge the status quo. Taking the time to respectfully listen sends the message that people are valued and respected. Being open and inviting ideas from others will increase empowerment in your team.
Support Personal and Professional Growth
Provide a pathway for learning for all members of your team. Identify a few advisors or mentors within the team that can be a safety net for bouncing off ideas. This provides a growth opportunity for the mentor as well as the person seeking help. Encourage continuous learning through professional development resources. Create pathways for career advancement within the foundation.
Recognize Excellence
Identify and acknowledge talent among your team. Look for opportunities to praise and highlight others’ achievements. Make sure you value the contributions of all. Find out what forms of recognition are most meaningful to each team and publicly acknowledge excellent team performance at meetings. Celebrate milestones and contributions to reinforce a culture of excellence.
Demonstrate Authentic Leadership
Showing vulnerability is a characteristic of authentic leadership. An authentic leader focuses on transparency, invites different points of view, takes accountability when mistakes occur, shares and promotes team success and never stops growing as a leader. Admitting to not always having the answers invites others to step forward to offer suggestions. Showing vulnerability enables the leader to earn the trust of their employees and peers, creating a more collaborative and joyful work environment.
Trust is the foundation of a strong, high-performing team. By fostering relationships, encouraging accountability, promoting innovation and leading with authenticity, foundations can build a culture where employees feel valued, connected and empowered to contribute to their fullest potential.
About the Author: Lori J. Counts, FAHP, CFRE, is a certified executive coach and Principal Consultant with Accordant. She specializes in executive coaching, board development and training, as well as program assessments and capital campaign fundraising. You can reach her by email at Lori@AccordantHealth.com or by connecting through LinkedIn.
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