How much energy to we invest on protecting our reputations strenuously at work?
It is tiring, isn’t it? Always watching your back, playing the politics in the board and in big meetings.
There is never space for vulnerability, for the “I don’t know” or “I am not that good at this”, or “I don’t feel confident”, not to mention “I make a mistake, I was wrong”.
Yet, it turns out vulnerability is the best way to build trust, the foundational characteristic of a high performing team.
I learned about a very important distinction on trust today from Patrick Lencioni “The 5 dysfunctions of a team”
1) Standard definition of trust: ability to predict a person’s behaviour based on past experience, for example you trust that one of your team members will perform well in a budget meeting because he has done that in the past.
2) Trust that is the quality of a great team is when team members make themselves vulnerable to one another, and expect that their vulnerabilities will not be used against them. These includes weaknesses, skill deficiencies, mistakes or requests for help.
How much do you trust your team? How much does your team trust you? How much do you trust yourself?
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