How to Build a Team Environment of Trust and Safety

Today’s top coaches know how to get the best out of their athletes. They do this, in part, by creating an environment of trust and safety where athletes feel comfortable being themselves, taking necessary risks, and speaking up. Researchers call this psychological safety and it impacts athletic performance.

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How Do You Measure Team Chemistry?

While widely regarded as a team intangible, some coaches have been famed for creating team chemistry.

It turns out that researchers from the MIT Human Dynamics Lab found a way. They discovered a set of behaviors (called proto-language) that predicts a team’s success.

Proto-language is a set of behaviors we, as humans, use to communicate safety.

Belonging cues are the behaviors that make up proto-language and make us feel safe. They include eye contact, proximity, body language, attention, energy, taking turns, speech rate, and vocal pitch.

When belonging cues are sent and received consistently within your team, they send the message You are safe here. When your team members feel safe to be themselves (to be vulnerable) within the team, that creates chemistry.

How teams communicate, it appears, may be more important than what they communicate.

How Coach Pop Creates Trust and Safety

Gregg Popovich of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs gives coaches and leaders a great model to follow.

Author Daniel Coyle outlines how coach Popovich’s communication consists of 3 types of belonging cues any coach can use:

  1. Personal, up-close connections (body language, attention, and behavior that translates as I care about you)
  2. Performance feedback (relentless coaching and criticism that translates as We have high standards here)
  3. Big-picutre perspective (larger conversations about politics, history, and food that translate as Life is bigger than basketball)

Coach Popovich demonstrates what it looks like to strike a balance of being both supportive and demanding. Building relationships or getting results is not an either/or proposition. Today’s top coaches do both.

According to Coyle, Popovich builds a relational narrative with each of his players, “You are part of this group. This group is special. I believe you can reach those standards.”

3 Strategies for Creating an Environment of Trust and Safety:

The research around building psychological safety in teams could be boiled down to a simple axiom: show you care. However, we all know that common knowledge is far from common practice. At the risk of stating the obvious, I invite you to consider these strategies from a fresh perspective, asking yourself, “Am I helping my team members feel safe?”

1. Really Listen

“Posture and expression are incredibly important,” said Ben Waber, founder of Humanyze, a social analytics firm. Lean in, maintain eye contact, and arch your eyebrows when your players or staff members are talking. And don’t interrupt. Show them you are truly listening. Show them you care and that their voice matters.

2. Over-Express Gratitude

Go out of your way to say, “Thank you.” Name specifics. Be genuine. Thank players for their attitudes and effort. Thank the little guys who can easily be taken for granted. According to research by Adam Grant and Francesco Gino, the expressions of gratitude change behavior, making the recipient more likely to offer help and generosity to others. Who doesn’t want members of their team helping each other out?

3. Invite Input

According to Amy Edmondson, of Harvard’s Business School and expert on psychological safety, “To create safety, leaders need to actively invite input.” When coaches and leaders solicit other’s opinions, ideas, and perspectives it lets them know that 1) you don’t present to have all the answers and 2) you value their opinion as a member of the team. Coyle recommends using phrases like, “This is just my two cents.” “What am I missing?” “What do you think?”

Inviting input also demonstrates humility.

Build Trust and Safety to Maximize Team Performance

Coyle leaves coaches with one clear bottom line, “Group performance depends on behavior that communicates one powerful overarching idea: We are safe and connected.” If you want to bring out the best in your athletes, use the strategies above to create an environment of trust and safety. These are essential for building a championship team culture.

Question: What are other strategies for communicating trust and safety to your team?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.

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