Michel Koopman is a top growth strategist, executive coach, CEO & Founder at CxO Coaching and 2Swell.
An environment rich in trust can create a setting primed for accountable collaboration within teams. This sense of collaborative security can enable professional teammates to hold each other accountable comfortably and effectively, ultimately driving superior performance. CEOs and leaders can draw inspiration from best-selling business books; I have distilled some key points from three of my favorites to highlight how trust empowers team members to work together, leverage their strengths and achieve exceptional results.
How can CEOs build trust and encourage accountability within their organization?
Establish vulnerability-based trust.
In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni argues that vulnerability-based trust is a key component to creating an environment where accountable collaboration thrives. When colleagues feel safe expressing their opinions, concerns and failures (without the fear of severe embarrassment or backlash), trust is nurtured. Leaders should lead by example and be unafraid to show vulnerability and authenticity. “Teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.”
Speaking from a CEO standpoint, perceived success can make us feel that we are often right when in fact others may have better ideas and more relevant skill sets. I make it a point to vocalize to my team that I want them to challenge my decisions, even when I am confidently laying them out, as I have been wrong before about having the best idea.
Align purpose and values.
In Tribal Leadership, the authors discuss how organizations need the alignment of a team’s purpose and values to promote collective accountability. When team members unite under a shared purpose, trust is established, providing a framework for mutual accountability to achieve common goals. “Alignment means bringing pieces into the same line—the same direction. The metaphor is that a magnet will make pieces of iron point toward it. Tribes based on alignment want to maximize each person’s contribution, provided that they stay pointed in the same direction like magnetized iron filings.”
When I launched my company, I ran a “scrappy” team where everyone wore multiple hats, worked overtime and leveraged resources beyond their normal capacity. But our shared mission of “maximizing the professional success of others” through executive coaching kept us aligned—all a part of the evolving maturity stages of the team and company.
Leverage trust as the catalyst for accountable collaboration.
Stephen M.R. Covey also highlights the role of trust when trying to merge collaboration and accountability within teams: “The first job of a leader—at work or at home—is to inspire trust. It’s to bring out the best in people…and to create an environment in which high-trust interaction inspires creativity and possibility.”
There is a monetary value to trust. When trust is high, cost goes down speed goes up. As a leader I completely agree with this; when a leader consistently does what he says and says what he does, trust is established, teams can move faster, at a lower cost.
To rebuild trust, I find it important to not have the attitude with team members that when trust is lost, it is lost forever—it is not. Trust takes time to rebuild, but it’s entirely possible. It requires you to share feelings, set expectations and meet objectives with consistent, predictable communication.
Communicate transparently with constant feedback.
Transparent communication is essential for cultivating trust-based accountability—a CEO should foster an open and honest culture of communication where team members can express their ideas, concerns and feedback freely. Regular feedback loops ensure that individuals are aware of their perceived performance and understand how their tasks align with team objectives.
The level of trust goes up when people know where they stand as “surprises” are the enemy of trust. When considering objectives and projects and the people/teams who own them, I assess what requires daily standups, (bi)weekly meetings, monthly reviews or quarterly meetings—each with a unique agenda and timeline.
Promote peer-to-peer accountability.
In the spirit of trust, peer-to-peer accountability should be encouraged and colleagues should be empowered to hold one another accountable for commitments with each other, without judgement. This horizontal accountability strengthens the collaborative fabric of the team and cultivates a sense of shared responsibility for achieving KPIs.“When trust goes up in a relationship, or on a team, in a company, in an industry, with a client, with a customer—speed goes up with it and cost comes down. Everything happens faster and everything costs less because trust has been established,” shares Steven Covey, in The Speed of Trust. Essentially, teams with the ability to establish trust quickly have a massive competitive edge.
In my organization, we have monthly, all-hands team meetings where everyone is encouraged to share successes/challenges and contribute feedback to improve our culture of collaboration. One needs to lead by example, so empowered your colleagues to promote peer-to-peer accountability by routinely asking for feedback—especially if an initiative is going off-track.
Allow room for mistakes and celebrate successes.
Creating a safe space is essential to creating trust-based accountability. Failures should be viewed as opportunities for improvement (or innovation); remember to praise in public and reprimand in private. Team members need to be encouraged to share lessons learned from setbacks and apply them to future projects. Similarly, making certain to recognize and celebrate achievements can boost group morale, reinforce company culture and encourage continued accountable collaboration.
When a mistake is made, it can really help when others see that the leader jumps in to help, not judge, the person who is struggling to right the wrong. This type of consistent leadership behavior can nurture a collaborative, solutions focused culture where people take pride to help each other, not undermine them for their own benefit.
CEOs and executive leadership have the power to create an environment where team members are inspired to hold each other accountable comfortably and effectively. I believe trust empowers individuals to put aside egos when experiencing failure to innovate and overcome, leverage their strengths, ultimately driving superior performance.
As trust strengthens, so does the team, performance and ultimately, profits.
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