Description:

Start every work meeting and lunch with an icebreaker question to get to know each other.

It’s not sweat or revenue that makes companies tick; it’s trust.

Trust touches every area of business. Research published by Harvard Business Review bears this out: Workers at companies where trust is high report 106% greater energy in the office, 74% lower stress levels, 76% greater engagement, and 50% more productivity than their peers at low-trust businesses.

The list goes on, but you get the point: When members of a company know that others have their back, they take risks. When turnover happens, they step in to fill gaps, trusting that things will get better.Trust is powerful, no doubt. But what does it mean in a work context, and more importantly, how can leaders build and maintain it?

To prosper in the age of stakeholder capitalism, companies must actively cultivate the trust of employees, investors, customers, regulators and corporate partners: developing strategies to understand these stakeholders more intimately, implementing deliberate trust-building actions, tracking their efforts over time, and communicating openly and effectively with key stakeholder groups.

Managers have an important role to play, too. 93% of employees surveyed believed trust in their direct supervisor was the most important factor in workplace satisfaction.

In other words, your team members need to get to know you too.

As a leader, your most important responsibility is building trust on your team. Without it, a team can't collaborate and can't achieve its goals.

“Building trust” may sound like a big and daunting mission—but it doesn’t necessarily need to be. There are small actions you can take with your team every day to prioritize connecting and building empathy with each other.

One of my favorite ways to get to know teammates on a personal level is through team building questions.

How to Use:

Use with colleagues.