Our brains love predictability and reciprocity (trust) almost as much as they love chocolate!

No time to read right now?

Click PLAY to listen to the Newsletter audio file.

“Without trust, we don’t truly collaborate; we merely coordinate or, at best, cooperate. It is trust that transforms a group of people into a team.” — Stephen Covey

In my last post, I spoke about safety, and in particular psychological safety, where we can take a risk with a differing opinion, or alternative viewpoint, or bring bad news to my manager.  All without risking our place in the team, or sense of belonging, or how much we matter to everyone.

In sporting parlance, we would talk about playing the ball, not the player.

In my clinical career I was very often humbled and excited to see when someone who has struggled having that a-ha moment and recognised that they belonged in their tribe, weren’t being judged for their past or indeed for their current struggle.

It is the most human of moments when someone gets to experience that fact that they can feel safe with their people.  It is the bedrock that is necessary to feel like we can trust others and we can invest in our safety.

Here is the thing about trust – we think it is an outcome based on our executive thinking function.  That we carefully consider our situation, weigh up all the pros and cons and reach a conclusion that we can trust someone or something.

But we make that decision in about 15 milliseconds.  The rest is just us chewing over it and justifying our gut instinct.  And trust is highly emotive – if you’ve ever had your trust broken, you will know what I mean.

Those with insecure or traumatic early experiences will be hard-wired to resist and move with caution.  Again, this will happen instantaneously, and will take a little longer to overcome and adjust.

This is where reciprocity and predictability come into play.  The mutual exchange of positive actions and behaviours will reinforce trust in your teams, building a sense of safety for everyone.

This isn’t difficult to do, and in fact, when done with authenticity, it is just about instinctive and automatic.  I help leaders connect better with their teams and create empathetic engagement.

This is the road to psychological safety and psychosocial wellbeing.

Helping employees know they matter, by helping leaders show they care.  This is my mission now.

Please feel free to share this blog with anyone you feel would appreciate and value it.  And reach out if you want to have a no-obligation conversation about developing caring leaders and lifting performance and connection in your teams.

#canwetalk #critcalconversations #caringconversations #safety #trust #belonging #mattering