Why Is Trust So Important

March 25, 2024/Randy Mayes

Written by Randy Mayes | DRYVE Leadership Coach

Why Trust Is So Important

People do what they do for a good reason but remember it is for their reasons and not yours

Are You Safe?

There is an overwhelming body of scientific evidence pointing to the importance of trust and psychological safety. Interestingly, Google conducted an extensive study on what makes for effective teams. The study was named after the Greek philosopher Aristotle citing his famous statement that the Whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Our modern term for this is synergy. They did extensive research and used 35 different analytical models to crunch the data. To their surprise, team effectiveness had very little to do with who was on the team. It didn’t matter how smart, creative, or experienced they were. What mattered most was psychological safety.

The foremost expert on Psychological Safety, Amy Edmondson, defines it this way. “Team psychological safety is a shared belief held by members of a team that it’s OK to take risks, to express their ideas and concerns, to speak up with questions, and to admit mistakes — all without fear of negative consequences.”

If we want to be effective leaders, we need to be a safe person to be around. All our knowledge, ability,and insight go for naught if people don’t see us as safe. Ask yourself, when people interact with me do they feel –

• Esteemed

• Valued

• Safe

• Understood

• Respected

• Better off

If you can’t resoundingly answer yes to the above checklist, you have some serious work to do before you maximize your leadership effectiveness.

If you would like some help applying this concept, let’s talk.

If you want to know more about Psychological Safety, read this article in the Harvard Business Review, https://hbr.org/2023/02/what-is-psychological-safety

Photo by Noah Buscher on Unsplash