{"id":38431,"date":"2021-06-13T14:07:29","date_gmt":"2021-06-13T18:07:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=38431"},"modified":"2025-10-03T11:11:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:11:05","slug":"simon-sinek-trusting-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/simon-sinek-trusting-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"Simon Sinek: Trusting Teams Are Essential"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How does team trust<\/a> factor into the infinite mindset<\/a>? What are the main tell-tale signs that the team members in your organization trust one another?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Simon Sinek<\/a>, trusting teams are the second part of developing what he calls “the infinite mindset.” A trusting team is a team made up of people who feel safe around each other\u2014safe expressing their feelings, asking for help, talking about problems<\/a>, and admitting to mistakes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is what team trust looks like in an organization and what happens when it’s missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s note: This article is part of\u00a0Shortform\u2019s guide to team-building<\/a>. If you like what you read here, there\u2019s plenty more to check out in the guide!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Importance of Team Trust<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to Simon Sinek, trusting teams are the glue that holds it all together. On a trusting team, workers know that their bosses and colleagues will support them through errors and will offer help in a non-judgmental way when asked. Thus, they feel safe being honest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conversely, on a non-trusting team, people do not feel comfortable showing vulnerabilities and often feel compelled to lie, hide mistakes, and fake expertise rather than ask for help. In such an environment, problems in an organization are ignored or hidden instead of fixed. After some time, these problems can build up and can be much harder to address. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Center for Creative Leadership<\/a> (CCL) published a report in 2017, prior to Sinek\u2019s book, that advances many of the same philosophies on trusting teams. They define trust as \u201cthe bridge between the business need for results and the human need for connection.\u201d Like Sinek, the report notes that trust is a key element in a properly functioning organization<\/a>\u2014when workers trust each other they unite towards a common goal, take risks with their thinking, and communicate openly. In the absence of trust, workers compete, hoard information, and don\u2019t advance new ideas. Without trust, a corporate culture defaults to the lowest common denominator of behavior and is unable to achieve anything truly meaningful. The CCL notes that when they first published research on trust in 1999, it was considered a \u201csoft\u201d subject and not taken seriously. However, more recently, people have grown aware of the importance of trust<\/a> and of the fact that teams without it don\u2019t perform well.  

They recommend that leaders turn to trust-building programs if they sense certain problems in their team, such as a lack of enthusiasm, a reluctance to speak up, intra-team competition, or an attachment to the status quo. Each of these things may indicate a feeling of insecurity or a lack of connection between team members. <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Balance Performance With Trust<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sinek notes that infinite-minded leaders recognize that sometimes the best person for a job is not necessarily the highest-performing candidate. High performance is a reflection of competence<\/em>, but trustworthiness is a reflection of character<\/em>, and character can be a better indicator of a quality employee\u2014one who contributes to the organization, elevates her colleagues, and helps to make everyone do their jobs better. A team full of high-skill but low-trust members may become a group of self-serving individuals who never pull together in a meaningful collaborative way but instead, hoard information, take credit for others\u2019 efforts, and avoid accountability<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinek points to the recruiting practices of the U.S. Navy SEALS to underscore these principles. Sinek explains that the SEALS measure candidates against both performance and trust. They will not accept a candidate with high performance markers but low trust markers, as these people tend to be narcissistic, self-serving, and negative towards the other members, which ultimately hurts the cohesion and performance of the team. They will sooner select people with medium, or even low, performance markers if they have high trust markers, rather than the reverse of high performance markers but low trust. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Balance Competence With Character<\/strong>

Ray Dalio<\/a>, billionaire founder of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, discusses how to balance character and performance in his book Principles<\/em><\/a> and comes to a slightly different conclusion than Sinek. He advises that great people have both excellent character and excellent skills,<\/a> and if one of those elements is missing, your organization can suffer. A person with great skills but poor character won\u2019t align with your company\u2019s mission and will work to benefit their own goals, while a person with great character but low skills won\u2019t advance the mission of the company effectively, even if they\u2019re wonderful people to be around. 

Dalio allows for less flexibility than Sinek does when it comes to balancing these qualities. He advises only hiring people with high markers of both character and skill. Sinek\u2019s theories here might align more realistically with the needs of managers faced with hiring decisions in the absence of perfect candidates. Importantly, Sinek doesn’t advise hiring people with low<\/em> capabilities\u2014he\u2019s advocating for considering people with medium<\/em> skills over people with high<\/em> skills, if the lesser-skilled person has significantly more character. <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Create a Safe Space<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sinek maintains that trust comes from the top down. Leaders must show their team members that they value and trust them and must work to establish a culture in which team members trust each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n