Trust in leaders is the top leadership quality linked with employee engagement, according to a 2018 Gallup Survey. Trust is even more important for employee engagement than organizational culture or career growth. We all have had experiences in our life of going above and beyond when we had a leader we could trust. However, trust takes time to build and many managers and bosses are unaware of how trust affects their leadership.

If you’re interested in learning how to build trust with your team, BigSpeak Speakers Bureau works with some of the top leadership keynote speakers. These leadership speakers are experts on teamwork, emotional intelligence, and organizational culture. If you want to start building trust with your team, here are six things you can do.

1) Show Mutual Respect

If you want to build loyalty and mutual trust with your team, you need to show each other mutual respect. According to inspired leadership and teamwork keynote speaker Robyn Benincasa, there are a number of ways you can show mutual respect. One is by mentoring unselfishly.  You can share information and knowledge with your team to help others perform better. Another method is to avoid negative talk about team members. Refrain from gossip, complaints, and backstabbing, and you will go a long way to creating trust.

2) Make Time to Connect 

A good way to start building trust is to make time to connect with your team members. Leadership expert and founder of Perfect Fitness Alden Mills says you must make time to connect emotionally and mentally with your team. They must know you as a person before they will trust you as a leader.

3) Care Personally

Another way to build mutual trust is to care personally for your team members. According to business communication expert Kim Scott and author of Radical Candor, caring personally is about getting to know your team as people instead of as job titles. You can care personally by asking questions to know each person, what they like as a hobby, if they have children or a pet. By learning about them, you will become more attentive to their moods and understand when they need help or a word of encouragement.

4) Admit Mistakes

As a leader, you might think that if you never fail, your team will trust you more. However, you can build more trust with your team members by admitting your mistakes, according to emotional intelligence keynote speaker Dr. J.P. Pawliw-Fry. By admitting your errors, you show your vulnerability, which builds trust with your team.

5) Follow Your Values

People trust others who stay true to their principles and values. Organizational change expert Jim Hemmerling, says leaders who take principled actions are respected, supported, and trusted by those who follow them. A leader’s principles and values help connect a team with a deeper sense of purpose in their work. 

6) Stay Honest

This should go without saying but honesty is essential to building lasting trust. In research on leadership, honesty has consistently ranked as the most important quality for leaders— across cultures and demographics. Leadership researchers Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, authors of the Leadership Challenge say people want their leaders to be honest because a leader’s honesty is a reflection of the follower’s honesty. A lack of honesty leads to a lack of confidence or trust in a leader. If you can’t believe what a leader says, how could you ever trust them?

Whether you’re looking to do a conference, keynote, or online meeting, these leadership keynote speakers have the expertise to show you how to build trust with your team.