Trust, not intelligence, is the primary driver of exceptional executive team performance.
It’s a force multiplier that amplifies your team’s ability to think critically and creatively.
The backstory: One evening, I was speaking to a group of MBA students about team performance. I asked a question: “Think back to your best team experience ever. What makes it so memorable?”
One woman’s hand shot up. “I felt like the whole of my team was greater than the sum of its parts,” she said.
The research: Some years ago, Google undertook a comprehensive study of 180 internal teams to understand the five key drivers of high-performing teams.
Google concluded — and social psychologists have confirmed – that the most important factor is psychological safety, which Harvard professor Amy Edmundson defines as “a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.”
Why it matters: Trust is the sine qua non of psychological safety. It’s the glue that keeps a team connected and is a necessary condition for creativity and innovation to flourish.
“At a recent leadership retreat, Eric delivered a thought-provoking presentation on trust – earning it, keeping it, not losing it, and how trust is foundational to the role of an in-house attorney. He was a highlight of our overall program.” – Noelle Perkins
Zoom in: My work coaching leadership teams – accomplished through workshops, small group breakouts, and personal reflection exercises – focuses on helping teams build trust and psychological safety through reaching consensus on shared goals, learning how to accommodate different communication styles, and balancing efficiency with collaboration.
The result: Leadership teams depend on me to help them realize:
- Increased team member engagement and more focused task concentration
- Better time management and more efficient work processes
- More open, candid and clear communication
- Clearer, more actionable feedback among team members
- Greater commitment to shared team goals
- Improved interpersonal relationships among team members
The bottom line: Team members should feel safe asking questions about things they don’t understand and comfortable raising concerns about the work they’re doing.
They should feel free to view mistakes as opportunities for team learning and to offer candid feedback to others.
They should feel confident enough to accept feedback from others graciously, with an open mind.
Go deeper: Watch Amy Edmundson discuss the importance of psychological safety in a knowledge economy. Read about four steps you can take right now to boost psychological safety in your workplace.
Email me today to discuss your team performance challenges .
Fridman Associates 