Raise your virtual Zoom hand if you’ve worked away from your team during the last few years. Do any of your colleagues work in a different time zone from you?
Unless you’re an astronaut or live under a nice rock, the answer is probably yes. Even post-COVID-19, 15% of all jobs listed right now are 100% remote, and a whopping one-quarter of the global workforce works in 100% virtual teams.
You may have heard of some of the benefits of hybrid work — for both employees and organisations, and it looks like the ‘future of work’ is here to stay.
However, many of our companies are operating and training just like it’s 2019; like we’re working all in the same room and expecting the same results.
The key to an excellent virtual working experience is building a team that trusts each other. For it to work, we must be sure about our processes and people to ensure everyone stays happy.
As a remote leader, you can up your game with one secret ingredient… TRUST.
What is trust?
Trust means that you rely on someone else to do the right thing. It’s about confidence. You believe in the person’s integrity and strength to the extent that you can put yourself on the line, at some risk to yourself.
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Trust is essential to an effective team because it provides a sense of safety and protection. In a high-trust environment, we see more productivity, higher energy, and more collaboration with peers. Who wouldn’t want that?
There are many types of trust, but there are three fundamental three forms it can take:
- First, we have swift trust. “Unless one trusts quickly, one may never trust at all.” Swift trust occurs when you are forced to form a trusting relationship based on urgency, for example, when you’re thrown into a group for a project or emergency response (for instance, some fascinating academic papers have examined teams working in medical aid situations). You’ve formed a group, are getting stuck into a potentially already role, and are making decisions quickly. You may not know the other team members personally, but you must get the job done. Clear, open communication is what makes this phase successful.
- The second type of trust is affective-based trust. This forms when you have mutual interpersonal care and concern or emotional bonds. I like to imagine this trust taking the shape of warm fuzzies. It’s about knowing someone has your back. It’s your trust in your work friends — the people you call for a favour, even if they don’t officially have responsibility for your problem.
- Last but not least is cognitive-based trust. This type of trust is based upon individual beliefs about someone’s reliability, dependability, and competence. They consistently deliver on expectations. For example, you might not be best friends with your boss, but you respect and trust them for their work ethic and prowess.
Researchers have recently identified that availability also plays a massive part in cognitive trust. For example, your boss may be well respected in your field, but it will probably not be the healthiest relationship if they can’t make time for your regularly scheduled on-to-ones. Feedback? Nope, having no time for that either = a massive blow to your relationship.
In summary
Communication behaviour, social bonds, reliability, timely responses and feedback influence trust. As the saying goes, trust is hard to win but easy to lose, so once you’ve got those elements down, you need to be consistent.
Work to build resilient relationships at every step of the way — because it’s almost guaranteed you’ll come to face to face with a trust issue at some point.
