Building Trusting Relationships

Hello, Everyone! This is Colleen Kelly, the Chief Financial Officer for KenCrest. I am happy to be Marian’s guest blogger for the month of August. My blog series will share some of my thoughts on the topic of leadership. This is my last blog in this series, and the topic is building Trusting Relationships at Work. I welcome your feedback.

A cohesive and enjoyable workspace starts with team members who get along and trust each other. When coworkers feel comfortable in their work environment and trust their colleagues, they may feel more empowered to achieve success for themselves and the company. Trust is the foundation of strong professional and personal relationships, and it plays a crucial role in fostering collaboration, productivity, and overall satisfaction. Learning how to build trust is a great way to help develop colleague relationships and a sense of community.  It is critical if you’re going to be successful as an employee, manager, or leader. Building trust means that through your actions, you make someone else feel comfortable relying on you and confident in your abilities and your intentions, and they feel motivated to work with you.

Some common ways to build trust in the workplace are showing kindness and being friendly and considerate to your coworkers.  Another is getting to know your team members and showing genuine interest in them.

Another way to build trust is by acknowledging other people’s emotions. The simple act of verbally acknowledging how your coworkers are feeling can help you form deeper connections with them. Another method is delegating responsibility and trusting your team members to get the job done or collaborating with a coworker on a project.

My favorite ways to build trusting relationships at work are celebrating achievements and expressing gratitude. Celebrations can be for work anniversaries, project completions, birthdays, or just Fridays. I enjoy these because they add fun to the workplace and let others join in. There are many opportunities at KenCrest to express gratitude. We can mention our gratitude at the start of a meeting, in the weekly Town Hall, or even during Spirit Week. I wrote a thank you note to a coworker during Spirit Week one year, and they kept the card.  They remind me every once in a while how much the comment on that card meant to them, and I realized the impact sharing your gratitude can have.

All of these ways noted above are just a few to create positive and trusting relationships in the workplace. There are many more. What strategies have you used? What are some of your favorite methods? Which ones do you enjoy? Who doesn’t want to work in a trusting and fun workplace? I know I do!