This week, I was thinking back to the teams I have worked with in one form or another these past few months. In almost every team, there has been some underlying feeling of frustration:

• I wish our team wasn’t disjointed.
• I wish our team wasn’t pulling apart from each other.
• I wish we worked together instead of inadvertently fighting each other.
• I wish I didn’t feel out of place on the team.
• I wish I had clarity on where we are going as a team.
• I wish I had confidence and the tools to be an effective leader.
• I wish we had a framework to talk to each other about what was going on in the team.
• I wish I had more pride in our team.
• I wish we had a clear path forward.

Many of these frustrations were present but were difficult to articulate beforehand because it wasn’t clear what was missing.

The Litmus Test

Here’s the real litmus test: Patrick Lencioni says that JOY is the leading indicator of the health of your team and organization. Does your team experience JOY when working together? Do they actually, truly, look forward to doing meaningful work together? I don’t mean doing my individual work while technically being on a “team.” I don’t mean sort of liking each other. I mean legitimately having JOY working together towards collective team goals that move the needle and make a difference.

If JOY is not present, why not do the work to create joy, now? You are going to spend time with the team anyway. You might as well spend some energy in making it joyful. Life is too short.

If you want to enjoy your work, build a JOYful team culture.

If you want to improve retention significantly, build a JOYful team culture.

If you want to accomplish big objectives faster, build a JOYful, cohesive team culture.

If you want to build a healthy organization where retention skyrockets and functions actually collaborate together, build a JOYful, cohesive, clear, leadership team.

Is it hard, messy work? Yes.

Is it worth it? Oh, yea.

The How

How do you do it? Simple: (1) show up as team players, (2) appreciate and leverage each other’s geniuses and frustrations, (3) build team behaviors into your meetings (trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, focus), (4) get clarity on what’s important now.

I am happy to send you resources for each step and will happily do so upon request but…

…sometimes you just need an outside, unbiased person to provide insight into what needs to happen.

Why not schedule a 30 minute call to talk about your team, whether we each decide there is a next step or not. I will be honest and tell you what I think. This is what I do! After all…

You have to spend time with the team anyway…

While it’s always been hard to build trust on teams, it has become even more difficult. Constantly changing conditions, separated team members, constant pressure, overwhelmed leaders, fatigued employees are just a few of the reasons. Many teams are struggling with broken trust. When people do not trust their team members, problems with turnover, morale, stress, burnout, and productivity accelerate. Negative and toxic behaviors seep into the team. Life on the team is miserable. You can hear it in people’s voices. No one wants to work on a team where trust is broken. Everyone wants to be on a team where they flourish. When trust is broken on a leadership team, it gets even worse: not only do people on the leadership team suffer, but everyone in that organization feels the effects.

It’s time to re-build trust. In this post, I’ll share the first of three steps.

What is trust?

First, let’s define trust. Patrick Lencioni says that “trust is all about vulnerability.” Brené Brown says that “trust is a product of vulnerability.” Vulnerability-based trust is what we are talking about, not trust that people are competent in their job. Are people on your team willing to be vulnerable? Are they willing to admit mistakes, say they are sorry, offer ideas, and admit they need help or don’t have the answer? Are you willing to be vulnerable as a leader? Where is the energy on your team? Is the energy in finding solutions and engaging in forward change? Or is the energy in protecting ourselves and processing how other people will react or respond? It needs to be the former.

Let’s get to the first of those three steps.

Step 1: Expose the Mess

When I lived and worked in Seattle in the late 90’s, plans were put in place to build a brand new football stadium – what is now Lumen Field. However, the new stadium could not be built…until the old stadium – the Kingdome – was removed. I was present for the demolition of the Kingdome. Our family, as well as many others, stopped on the side of the freeway, and counted down until the explosives ripped through the old stadium and it collapsed in a heap. It was loud, surprising, and messy. Yet, it had to be done. Only once the old mess was addressed could the new stadium be built.

It’s the same way with re-building trust. You can start to work on building trust on your team again, but at some point you have to acknowledge that there has been a lack of trust, people have been wounded, something has happened, and it may take a while to rebuild that trust. You have to expose the mess of distrust.

How do you expose it?

One, sometimes exposing distrust occurs naturally. When we start to work on rebuilding trust (see ideas in the next post), the past will naturally come up as part of the conversation. Let it. Don’t squash that conversation. You have to face it in all its ugliness. My natural tendency is to be positive and focus on moving forward. I don’t like being negative, it makes me uncomfortable. There’s a time and place for positivity and moving forward, but there’s also a time and place to get distrust out in the open. You can’t manage a secret. You can’t move forward if people on the team are harboring hurt and resentment.

Two, sometimes exposing distrust needs a direct approach. If there is an overt problem, such as with a particular individual or between two individuals, you may need to address that first. Meet with them 1-on-1. Meet with them together. Tell them that we are going to try and get past it. Involve them in generating solutions. Forgiveness and apology may be appropriate here but it can’t be forced or coerced.

Three, sometimes an intentional activity is warranted. For example, you could create three lists: our team today, what our team could be, and what needs to change for our team to accomplish what it could be. Ask the team to place post-it notes that describe what the team is today. What words would you use to describe it? I suggest focusing on behaviors – like arguing or not speaking up or not engaging – instead of assuming motives or intent – like selfish or concerned with ourselves. Incidentally, this list is also the team’s future if nothing changes. Then ask the team to describe what the team could be if changes were made. Finally, what specifically do each of us need to do in order to achieve that new state. Don’t get hung up on whether your team is in person, virtual, or hybrid. Use your Zoom annotation tools – it’s no different. You can still have the conversation. You just need to be intentional and persistent.

The overall goal is not to solve distrust. The overall goal to gain commitment and make progress on moving forward. The problem is out. We’re not pretending anymore. We’re not necessarily going to solve it now but we can at least commit to moving forward and working towards a solution with small steps and good intentions.

Let’s commit as leaders to start rebuild trust so that everyone can flourish on our teams.

Next: Steps 2 and 3…

If you have any hope of keeping your people, you must create a positive work environment. MIT Sloan recently found that during this “Great Resignation” attrition rates vary significantly between companies, even in the same industry. The number one reason for attrition is a toxic culture. Compensation was number sixteen.

For some leaders, you’ve allowed toxic behavior and you need to stop accepting it. For many leaders, you just haven’t set the clear expectations for how team members will interact with each other and your team needs the clarity those expectations bring. Ambiguity breeds anxiety. It’s time to give your team clarity.

I am going to share with you one simple tool to eliminate toxic behaviors and create a positive work environment on your team.

What is a Negative Work Environment?

In my career and life, I have discovered that the obvious isn’t always obvious, so let’s list some of the behaviors that describe a negative working environment:

• Talking to people with disrespect
• Personal attacks
• Not listening
• Assuming bad intent
• Not sharing information
• Talking over one another
• Passive aggressive behavior
• Excluding people
• Dominating meetings
• Unfair or unethical practices
• Not being present
• Acting out of self-protection instead of team cohesiveness

Notice that while some of these are more overt and some are more subtle, they are all negative behaviors.

Team Tenets

Positive behaviors don’t just happen. They require consistent intentionality. Our natural reactions and instincts are to take care of ourselves first. Team Tenets are simply a list of clear expectations for how we will interact with one another on the team. In my career, I have been amazed at how often this simple, highly effective tool, is not used. Usually it’s because leaders just haven’t thought to do it.

Where does this tool come from? I’ve used it in my own leadership, leaders such as Alan Mulally credit it with turning around their organizations, and I was recently reminded of its value by Kim Yap, Assistant Commissioner for HR for the State of Tennessee (Kim is the one who gave me the name “Tenets” – you can call them expectations or norms but I like tenets!)

Let’s walk through three steps to leverage Team Tenets for your team.

1. Establish the Tenets

First, make a list of the specific behaviors by which your team will abide. I’m talking behaviors, not a concept like thoughtfulness. How are we going to interact with each other on the team? Behaviors are what someone else in the room can see, hear, and observe. You decide what the behaviors should be but I highly recommend that you include many of the following. These are basic, core behaviors that are requirements for a positive work environment for teams.

• Respect and appreciate each other.
• Always assume good intent.
• Include everyone in the conversation.
• Embrace disagreement – (Kim Yap says that professional disagreement is an essential business tool that we must embrace).
• Disagree about solutions, not people.
• Always tell the truth, always with kindness.
• Embrace a positive, “find-a-way” attitude.
• Have fun – enjoy the journey.

You may be wondering if you should create these tenets with your team or on your own. I find that a middle of the road approach works best: create an initial list and then bring it to the team for feedback. That gives the team a concrete list to which to react, instead of having to create a list from scratch. Once the list is established, ask the team to commit to the behaviors.

2. Double Down on the Tenets

These tenets are non-negotiable. If you are the new leader of the team, preach these tenets from day one: this is how we will behave as a team. If you are an existing leader, tell the team that we can do better and we are going to change our behavior. You may need to apologize if you’ve let negative behavior go on.

How do you double-down?

First, remind everyone of the tenets to which you have all agreed…at every single team meeting and every single one-on-one interaction. Never stop reminding people. Every Thursday, Alan Mullally began his business process review meetings with his leaders by reminding them of the plan, which included how they were going to behave and work together as a team. He called it the Working Together plan, and it’s what he credits with turning around Ford Motor Company.

Second, point out “violations.” If you don’t, you will create a set of secondary, unwritten tenets. How do you point them out? You don’t have to figure it out. Ask the team. How do they want to hold each other accountable when one of them – including you – violate a Team Tenet? Let them decide. This could be something fun, like placing a dollar bill on the table or waving a handkerchief in the middle of the Zoom call. Most team members want to create a positive work environment.

However, at some point, you will need to have a direct conversation and provide open, honest feedback. This shouldn’t be an argument or a heated conversation, just smile, get the point, and say that we aren’t going to act that way on the team anymore and that the team member’s specific behavior needs to change. That’s it. There isn’t anything to explain. The rules have been adopted by the team.

3. Be persistent.

Don’t give up. Some teams will adopt the tenets right away – they’ve been waiting for you to step up and establish these behaviors. For other teams, it will take longer. Don’t quit. Your team’s well-being – not to mention your own – needs this.

Will some people resist and self-select out of the team? Yes. Is that OK? Yes.

Watch your Team Take a Leap Forward

Your team needs you to take on the responsibility of building a positive work environment. While it may not be easy, it’s simple: set the expectations, always communicate the expectations, and don’t accept anything less. Then watch your team take a giant leap forward.