It’s early in the season when the young player makes a costly in-game mistake. 

When he comes to the sideline, his coach absolutely berates him. 

“What were you possibly thinking?” the coach shouts. “We went over that a million times.”

When the player doesn’t receive the message well, the coach grows increasingly frustrated.

“I’ve only won 250 games in my career,” he tells an assistant. “These young guys just don’t get it.”

The problem, though, isn’t the coach’s knowledge or his schemes.

It’s that his past success is somewhat irrelevant to his young player because he hasn’t cultivated enough of a bond or relationship to deliver tough, actionable feedback.

To Harvard Business School professor Frances Frei, trust really comes down to three components: 

1. Authenticity

Our team members need to see that we’re not putting on an act and are genuine in our intentions and interactions. Frauds can easily be sniffed out, and if we’re simply trying to be carbon copies of someone else or behave out of character, we’ll lose credibility and buy in almost immediately.

2. Rigor in logic

Seems basic enough. If we have an intimate depth of knowledge in our fields and conviction in our tactics and philosophies, our team members will see this and respect it.

It’s important to keep in mind that this takes a bit of time and shouldn’t simply be expected because of past achievement. As leaders, we need to prove ourselves time and time again to our team members, knowing that track records and past success often aren't enough to command respect and earn buy in.  

3. Empathy

Too often as leaders, we see mistakes in others, while failing to recognize our own. Being empathetic means acknowledging our own gaffes while at the same time having some patience for our team members'. This doesn't mean we have to make excuses for poor decisions, but improving performance often entails an element of relatability and some compassion amidst adversity.

As we enter the final weeks of 2023, we may want to give some extra thought to the trust elements within our teams.

The key to improving performance may not be more yelling, more data or more pressure-packed practices and rehearsals. 

It may just lie in more one-on-one communication to cultivate trust. 

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