Ten Ways to Build Trust with Your Team

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

Building trust as a new leader can be challenging because trust develops over time. The following 10 behaviors will help you to build trust more quickly:

1. Keep your commitments – is the most significant behavior you can demonstrate. It’s the quickest way to build trust in any relationship. The fastest way to destroy trust is to break commitments or violate promises, so moving forward, it will be critical not to do this.
2. Extend trust and empower others – you can leverage your own leadership by empowering others. Develop a bias, a desire, an inclination to trust people. Assume good intentions. You then create a high-trust culture that brings out the best in nurses and maximizes the team’s capability.
3. Demonstrate integrity – when you are honest, authentic, and courageous, you will inspire trust in others. Acknowledge when your behavior has contributed to a problem. Be vulnerable about the challenges and mistakes that can occur in decision-making.
4. Show a commitment to your work – commitment towards a clear purpose is the primary driver of leadership trust. Nurse leaders who believe in their organization’s mission, vision, and values and show commitment to their work are more trusted by staff. Communicate what you think is important in the future.
5. Walk your talk – nurses pay much closer attention to what their leaders do versus what they say. Your words and behaviors need to be congruent to be trusted.
6. Be ethical – character and commitment to a deeply held set of values instill trust. When nurse leaders cross ethical boundaries, trust is violated. Check your facts, don’t gossip, and don’t blame others for things that have happened. Accept accountability for mistakes.
7. Strive to be highly competent – to earn trust; a nurse leader must have some core competence in their areas of responsibility. Show up on time to meetings, be prepared, and be ready to work.
8. Care about your staff – nurses want to know that their leaders care about them as people. Be quick to thank others for their work. No one likes to feel like they are not valued. Treat your staff like your moral peers.
9. Be other-focused – not self-focused – words have power in leadership. Staff pay attention to the language that leaders use.  Don’t make things about you.
10. Ask for feedback – leaders who ask for feedback demonstrate vulnerability and acknowledge that they are on a journey.