Creating Teams of Trust

Daniel Mather graduated with a degree in Bachelors of Science in nursing and pursued Masters in the same at Ottawa University. Upon completion, he joined Salina Regional Health Center where he has dedicatedly led clinical operations for 15 years.

Keeping the complete workforce on the same page fosters accountability and awareness. Highlighted in this article by Dan Mather, a transparent work environment is based on facts, timely briefings and trust. It is the key to curb dead-end interactions and encourage meaningful teamwork.    

All play and no work

If I were a seasoned salesperson who could sell one skill to help your team improve safety, retention, recruitment, communication, accomplishments and ease of leadership burden, I would choose trust. Speaking from experience, it is a no-brainer.

Let’s start by understanding how teams with no culture of trust look like. They run off of tales and rumors. Here, employees gain power not through their skill or work ethic but with gossip and hiding mistakes instead of owning them. There is a lack of planning as people merely get through the tasks with no future goals.

Finding balance with honesty

Compare that with a team that has a culture of trust. Employees who excessively gossip or cause drama have minimal power. Your best employees are highly motivated, skilled and compassionate and support the other employees, growing them into future rising stars. In case of mistakes, they own them and inform others for future avoidance. In this environment, workers are not just surviving through the day but are working on solutions for upcoming problems.

•   As a leader, who would not want an environment like the second one? How do we get there?

•   You must set an example and lead with honesty and transparency.

•   When you make a mistake, own it and tell the team.

•   Give people honest feedback and do not shy away from candid conversations. There are a lot of good resources on workplace interactions if you need them.

“In this environment, workers are not just surviving through the day but are working on solutions for upcoming problems.”

•   Make sure your team knows where they are on crucial items like the safety measures of full-time equivalent (FTE). This includes understanding preventable conditions and goals.

•   Upon receiving customer or patient feedback, share with teams in detail. The good, the bad and the ugly! I send our patient experience scores and comments out every week to our teams and reward employees who are recognized by   name.

Do not micromanage your team. Assign them tasks, ensure they have the required resources, give a deadline, check in with them periodically and leave them alone. You will be amazed at what great teams will produce with autonomy.  

Teamwork happens only through equal transparency

People have found me unusual for discussing budgets with my team but it is one of the best ideas as employees respect transparency and want to be a part of the solution as stakeholders. I timely inform them about the impact of limited hours and supplies. In doing so, my teams have independently responded with great ways to resolve the areas of struggle. If you do not tell them the facts, they might make it up anyway and the rumor mill version is almost always worse