5 Steps to Building Brilliant Teams. No 5. Results

“If a team is not focused on results, it will ultimately stagnate and fail to grow.”

— Patrick Leconi

Teamwork is about getting things done.

It’s about making progress on the things that matter most — together.

Teams exist to deliver results you can’t achieve alone. To solve problems. To drive growth. To create something better than the sum of individual efforts.

Results mean moving forward with purpose, working towards shared goals — not just being busy or just doing our own thing in isolation. Results give focus, energy, and meaning to all the work that happens day-to-day.

That’s why great teams align around shared results — and make them visible, measurable, and worth celebrating.

This is the final blog in my series exploring how to build a brilliant team — inspired by Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team model. So far, we’ve explored Trust, Healthy Conflict, Commitment, and Accountability. Today, we’re focusing on Results — and why shared success matters more than anything.

“The ultimate dysfunction of a team is the tendency of members to care about something other than the collective goals of the group.”

Patrick Lencioni

After all the conversations, connection, and commitment — what’s the point?.

Results are what all of this teamwork is building towards. But in many teams, results aren’t as visible — or as shared — as they need to be. People stay busy with their own tasks. Departments chase their own targets. Success goes unnoticed — or is only recognised from the top down. And when results aren’t visible, celebrated, or shared — teams lose momentum.

When teams trust each other, engage in healthy conflict, commit to decisions, and hold each other accountable, there’s a good chance they’ll succeed.

But the final step is to make sure everyone is aligned around shared goals — and that success is visible to everyone.

What Happens When Teams Don’t Focus on Results?

When collective results aren’t clear or visible:

• People retreat to individual priorities

• Teams lose focus and motivation

• Progress becomes hard to measure

• Success often goes unacknowledged

This isn’t about micromanagement. It’s about shared momentum.

How to Create a Team Focus on Results

Here’s how high-performing teams stay focused on what matters most:

1. Set Shared Goals — Not Just Individual Ones
   Shared KPIs or team objectives create alignment and clarity.
   Ask: “What does success look like for our team?”
   ”How will we measure progress as a team?”

2. Make Progress Visible — Create a Scoreboard
   A Scoreboard is key to visibility.
   It’s a simple, visual way to track goals and keep keeps them front of mind, it creates focus, motivation and accountability. It also helps you celebrate the milestones and successes.

3. Celebrate Wins — Big and Small
   Celebrating together builds connection, pride, and momentum.
   Success often goes unrecognised — or gets lost in the rush to the next thing. Celebrating results isn’t about trophies or big awards (though those can be great too). It’s about noticing. Great teams make a habit of recognising:
   - Progress
   - Effort
   - Lessons learned
   - Collaboration
   - Values-driven behaviour
   
   Ask your team:
   ”What achievements — big or small — could we celebrate?”
   ”How do we want to celebrate together when we hit a goal?”

Final Thought: Results Are a Team Effort

The best teams succeed together. They stay focused on what matters most. They hold each other to high standards. They notice progress and they celebrate success.

When results are visible, shared, and celebrated — teams move faster, feel stronger, and stay connected.

Reflection Exercise: Create Your Team Scoreboard

This is a powerful conversation to have as a team — either in a workshop, team meeting, or strategy session. It’s not about over-complicating things — it’s about getting really clear on what success looks like for this team, and how you’ll stay focused on it together. This works brilliantly with post-its, whiteboards, or online collaboration tools.

1. Decide What Results Matter Most
   What results should we measure and track to know we’re moving towards our goal?
   What metrics matter most to us? This could include: KPIs, Customer feedback, Revenue or growth targets, Project milestones
   What will help us stay focused, motivated and accountable?
   Tip: Keep it simple — track what matters, not everything

2. Decide on Your Scoreboard
   What would make progress visible for us?
   What format would work so we can see our progress visually and regularly?
   Where and how should we update it?
   Ideas: Physical board in the office, Shared slide or doc, Digital dashboard, Weekly team check-in
   Tip: The scoreboard only works if people see it regularly.

3. Decide How You’ll Celebrate Success
   What do we want to celebrate?
   How do we want to celebrate together
   This could be: Shout-outs in meetings, a team ritual, sharing wins on Slack or Teams, Lunch together when a milestone is hit
   Tip: Celebration isn’t about showiness — it’s about noticing.

4. Make It a Habit

   Finally, ask:
   How will we keep this alive?
   How often will we check in on progress?

   How will we hold each other accountable for the results we care about?

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Need Help Aligning Your Team Around Results?

I design and facilitate practical, people-focussed team workshops that help teams get clear on what success looks like — and how they’ll work together to achieve it.

→ Workshops rooted in insight and action.

→ Tools to align goals and track progress.

→ Space for people to talk (really talk).

If you’d like to chat about how I could support your team, get in touch.

Call Polly on 07966 475195 or email polly@pollyrobinson.co.uk

5 Steps to Building a Brilliant Team. 4. Accountability

How Great Teams Hold Each Other To Account

Accountability is a sign of mutual respect. It’s about making sure what we said would happen, actually happens.

It’s about showing up for each other.

And it’s about caring enough to follow through — and to help others do the same.

In teams, accountability means:

• Taking ownership of your commitments

• Delivering work with integrity and consistency

• Checking in, offering support, and challenging each other to stay focused on shared goals

It’s not about blame.

It’s not about hierarchy.

It’s not about micromanagement.

This is the fourth blog in my series exploring how to build a brilliant team — inspired by Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team model. Firstly, we explored Trust, the second blog looked at Healthy Conflict, the third focused on Commitment. Today, we’re talking about Accountability — and why the best teams hold each other to high standards.

Accountability is how trust and commitment come to life in action. When teams practise accountability well:

• Deadlines are met

• Decisions lead to action

• Feedback flows freely

• People feel proud of their contribution — and confident in each other

Of course, when accountability slips, progress stalls. Frustration builds. And things start to fall through the cracks. But with the right habits and behaviours, that’s entirely avoidable.

As Patrick Lencioni puts it:

"Accountability is the willingness of team members to remind one another when they are not living up to the performance standards of the group."

The best teams don’t rely on one person — usually the leader — to chase everyone for updates. They support and challenge each other. Because accountability is a team sport.

Individual Accountability vs Shared Accountability

Great teams hold themselves — and each other — accountable in two key ways:

1. Individual Accountability
   Show up with integrity
   Meet deadlines
   Deliver quality work
   Take ownership for results (good and bad)
   Follow through on commitments
   Avoid blame — focus on solutions

2. Shared Accountability
   Collaborate — don’t just operate in silos
   Support each other to succeed
   Hold each other to agreed standards
   Speak up if something isn’t right
   Remind each other of shared goals and purpose
   Accountability isn’t about hierarchy.

How to Build a Culture of Accountability

Accountability doesn’t happen automatically — it’s something teams have to practise and leaders have to model. Here’s how to create it:

1. Set Clear Expectations
   Be explicit about what’s expected — from roles, goals, behaviours, and values. No assumptions.

2. Communicate Openly
   Be transparent and honest — about priorities, progress, and problems.

3. Check-In Regularly
   Informal check-ins, one-to-ones, and regular team reviews keep people aligned and focused.

4. Collaborate
   Remind people that shared accountability means helping each other succeed — not just focusing on individual tasks.

5. Role Model Accountability
   Leaders go first. Take ownership of mistakes. Follow through. Ask for feedback.

Why Feedback Matters to Accountability

Feedback is like Oxygen - it should flow in every direction — upwards, sideways, and across the team. When everyone feels safe to offer insight and hold each other to account, the whole team gets better, faster.

Feedback isn’t something that happens once a year. It’s an everyday habit. Great teams give feedback:

• Little and often

• Up, down, and sideways

• Direct, clear, and kind

• Feedback helps teams learn faster, improve performance, and build trust.

How Meetings Show (or Break) Accountability

Meetings are one of the most visible ways teams live out accountability.

If meetings feel like a waste of time — or nothing happens afterwards — people disengage. Meetings should:

• Build alignment

• Clarify decisions

• Confirm actions

• Hold people accountable for follow-through

Final Thought: Accountability Builds Trust, Clarity and Care

Accountability isn’t about being hard on people — it’s about caring enough to hold each other to high standards. It’s about making sure good intentions turn into action. It’s about having the confidence to challenge and support your each other. And it’s about creating a culture where following through isn’t optional — it’s what we do.

It’s not always easy — but it is important.

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Reflection Exercise: How Can We Be a More Accountable Team?

This is a simple, practical exercise you can use in your next team meeting — to open up an honest conversation about accountability.

1. Step 1: Ask your team these questions:
   Give everyone a few minutes to jot down their thoughts quietly first.
   When have you seen a lack of accountability in this team — and what happened?
   What gets in the way of holding each other to account?
   What’s the cost when we don’t follow through?
   What behaviour do we need to call out more often here?
   What would help us be better at giving (and receiving) feedback?

2. Step 2: Gather ideas together
   Use post-its, a whiteboard, or an online board (Miro, Jamboard) to capture themes.
   Look for patterns. Be curious. Avoid blame.

3. Step 3: Decide on one small action

Ask:

• What’s one thing we want to do differently as a team from today?

• What behaviour do we all agree to commit to?

One practical way to build accountability is to create a simple Team Accountability Contract - something short, clear, and visible that helps everyone stay on track. This is a shared agreement about what you expect from each other. For example:

• “When we commit to something, we will… follow through and update the team.”

• “If something is delayed or unclear, we will… raise it early and ask for help.”

• “When someone forgets or drops the ball, we will… remind them kindly and directly.”

• Co-create it together. Keep it visible. Refer back to it often.

• This turns accountability from something awkward into something normal, expected, and supportive.

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Need Help Building a Culture of Accountability in Your Team?

Accountability doesn’t have to feel hard or uncomfortable — it’s about clarity, consistency, and care.

That’s where I come in.

I design and facilitate practical, human team workshops that help teams create clear agreements, better habits, and a culture of everyday accountability.

→ Workshops rooted in insight and action.

→ Tools to build shared ownership and feedback skills.

→ Space for people to talk (really talk).

If you’d like to chat about how I could support your team, get in touch.

Call Polly on 07966 475195 or email polly@pollyrobinson.co.uk

5 Steps to Building Brilliant Teams. 3. Commitment

“Commitment Isn’t About Consensus — It’s About Clarity.”

Commitment Isn’t About Consensus — It’s About Clarity.

Commitment in teams isn’t about getting everyone to agree - it’s about shared clarity and confidence in the way forward.

It’s not simply about people:

• Saying yes when they don’t really mean it.

• Agreeing — but not really committing.

Real commitment in teams doesn’t come from keeping everyone happy. It comes from clarity.

• Clarity about why we’re here.

• Clarity about what we’re trying to achieve.

• Clarity about how we work together to get there.

Teams don’t need to agree on everything — but they do need to leave a conversation clear about the decision, aligned on the next steps, and committed to moving forward together.

Without clarity, teams drift.

Without commitment, teams stall.

This is the third blog in my series exploring how to build a brilliant team — inspired by Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team model. In the first, we looked at Trust and in the second, we explored Healthy Conflict. Today, we’re talking about Commitment — and why it starts with clarity.

What Patrick Lencioni Says About Commitment

Patrick Lencioni describes commitment as the result of clarity and buy-in, not forced consensus or endless discussion. He makes it clear: Commitment doesn’t mean everyone always agrees. In fact, healthy teams often don’t agree during discussion — that’s a sign of healthy conflict (as we explored in the last article).

But once a decision is made, great teams commit fully — because they’ve had the chance to share their views, debate the options, and feel heard.

When commitment is missing in a team, Lencioni warns that indecision takes over. Meetings become circular. Actions get delayed. People leave conversations feeling frustrated or unclear about what’s happening next.

• Without clarity, ambiguity creeps in.

• Without buy-in, accountability drops.

• Without commitment, results suffer.

As Lencioni puts it:

“A lack of commitment leads to ambiguity among team members about direction and priorities, which leads to lack of confidence and fear of failure.”

This is why clarity — of purpose, values, and ways of working — is essential. Teams need to know what they’re committing to, why it matters, and what’s expected of them.

What Drives Commitment in Teams?

Commitment happens when people are crystal clear on three things:

1. Purpose — Why are we here?

2. Values — How do we work together?

3. Ways of Working — What does that look like day-to-day?

Let’s break them down.

Start with Purpose — Your WHY

As Simon Sinek says in Start With Why:

“People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.”

Your team’s WHY is its purpose. It’s the reason you show up. It’s what gives meaning to the work. Ask your team:

• Why does this team exist?

• Why do we get out of bed every morning to do this work?

• Why should anyone care?

Purpose brings people together and provides a north star for decisions and actions. It creates alignment and helps teams focus on what really matters.

Your HOW — Values in Action

Values are the principles that guide how you work, communicate, and collaborate. But they’re not just words on a wall or in an employee handbook. Real values are visible every day in behaviour. Great values should be:

• Easy to understand

• Relevant every day

• Used to guide decision-making and action

Too often, company values are generic (Integrity! Excellence! Innovation!) and mean very little in practice. The real question is:

What does this value look like in action?

Values should clarify:

• How we work together

• What behaviours we expect from each other

• What’s okay — and what’s not okay — here

Ways of Working — Clarity Removes Ambiguity

Commitment isn’t just about big-picture purpose. It’s about practical clarity too.

Clear teams agree on how they work together, so people know what to expect.

Here are some areas worth defining as a team:

1. Meetings
   What’s the purpose of different meetings?
   How often do we meet?
   How do we make sure meetings lead to action?

2. Communication
   What tools do we use for what? (Email, Teams, WhatsApp etc.)
   What’s the expected response time?
   How do we avoid overwhelm?

3. Working Day
   What are our working hours?
   What’s expected around annual leave or out-of-hours messages?
   How do we cover for each other?

4. Decision-Making
   How do we make decisions?
   What’s decided together vs by individuals?
   How do we communicate decisions clearly?

5. Recognition, Feedback & Growth
   How do we recognise and reward values-driven behaviour?
   How do we support learning and development?
   How do we give and receive feedback?

Create a Team Charter

One of the most practical ways to build clarity and commitment is to co-create a Team Charter. This is a simple, shared document where you capture:

• Your team’s purpose

• Your values (and what they look like in action)

• Your agreed ways of working

• Your rituals and rhythms (how you meet, communicate, celebrate)

• How you make decisions

• How you give feedback

• What you expect of each other

It’s not about creating more bureaucracy — it’s about removing assumptions. When teams create a Charter together, they have more ownership, more clarity, and more commitment. It becomes their shared agreement — a reference point for how they want to work and succeed together.

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Reflection Exercise: How Committed is Your Team?

Take 10–15 minutes to reflect on this yourself — or use these prompts in your next team meeting to open up a powerful conversation about clarity and commitment. You can do this as a written journaling activity, a team workshop, or even a casual lunchtime chat — the key is honesty and curiosity.

Step 1: Reflect (solo or together)

• Ask yourself (or your team):

• Does everyone know why our team exists? Can we all say it in one sentence?

• Are our values lived and visible — or just words on a wall?

• Where is ambiguity showing up in how we work?

• Where have we made assumptions that might need clarifying?

• Are people confident in how we make decisions, give feedback, or manage priorities?

Step 2: Identify a commitment blocker

• What’s one area where lack of clarity might be slowing us down, causing confusion, or creating friction?

• What’s the impact of that — on performance, wellbeing, trust?

Step 3: Decide on a next step

• What’s one thing we can define or revisit together — this week — to build clarity and alignment?

Bonus Tip: Use Post-its or an online board If you're doing this as a team activity, ask people to write anonymous thoughts on post-its or a shared digital board (e.g. Jamboard, Miro, or MURAL). For example:

• “I’m not sure what our real priorities are right now.”

• “Decisions are being made without clear communication.”

• “I’m unclear on how feedback works here.”

• Then group themes, discuss, and co-create a small action plan.

• Need Help Creating Clarity & Commitment in Your Team?

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Need Help Building Commitment in Your Team

Commitment doesn’t happen by accident — it happens when people feel clear, connected, and involved.

That’s where I come in.

I design and facilitate practical, human team workshops that help people get aligned on what matters most — and how they want to work together.

• → Workshops rooted in insight and action.

• → Tools to create clarity and shared purpose.

• → Space for people to talk (really talk).

If you’d like to chat about how I could support your team, get in touch.

Call Polly on 07966 475195 or email polly@pollyrobinson.co.uk

5 Steps to Building a Brilliant Team. No 2. Healthy Conflict.

“Conflict Isn’t the Problem — Avoiding It Is.”

When people hear the word conflict in a work context, most of us flinch.

We think of drama. Arguments. Division.

We picture raised voices or awkward silences.

But healthy conflict in teams is none of those things.

Healthy conflict is about ideas, decisions, and direction — not personal attacks or point-scoring.

It’s the kind of debate that makes ideas stronger, decisions better, and teams more committed to what happens next.

This is the second article in my series exploring how to build a brilliant team — inspired by Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team model. In the first, we looked at Trust as the essential foundation of teamwork. Today, we’re talking about something most teams avoid… Conflict.

As Patrick Lencioni puts it:

“If people don’t weigh in, they won’t buy in.”

Lencioni is clear: conflict in teams isn’t a bad thing — in fact, it’s essential.

“Conflict is not personal — it’s about ideas, decisions, and direction.”

In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, he explains that teams with high levels of Trust can disagree openly, challenge one another, and debate the best way forward — without fear of reprisal, blame, or tension.

Conflict is how good decisions get made. It’s how innovation happens. It’s how people feel heard and valued.

When we avoid it, we lose out — on clarity, commitment, and creativity.

Why Most Teams Avoid Conflict

Most teams avoid conflict not because they don’t care — but because it’s uncomfortable. Why?

• We’re wired for harmony.

• We want to be liked.

• We worry about upsetting people.

• And we assume that conflict always leads to confrontation.

But in avoiding the tough conversations, teams create a much bigger problem…

The Risks of Avoiding Conflict

Avoiding conflict doesn’t make tension disappear — it just pushes it underground. Here’s what it can lead to:

1. Artificial Harmony
   Everything looks polite or aligned — but people are holding back. Opinions stay hidden, challenges go unspoken, and better ideas are lost.

2. Loss of Commitment
   If you’ve not had a chance to contribute to a decision, you’re far less likely to feel ownership or commitment to it.

3. Gossip and Side Conversations
   When people don’t feel safe to speak up in the room, the real conversations happen elsewhere — in corridors, in messages, in frustration. This erodes trust and alignment fast.

4. Weaker Ideas & Decisions
   When teams avoid debate, assumptions go untested and decisions are made in an echo chamber. You lose the chance to stress-test ideas, spot blind spots, and surface creative thinking.

What Does Healthy Conflict Look Like?

Healthy conflict isn’t shouting matches or blame. It’s about respectful challenge, honest questions, and disagreement with shared purpose. Here’s the difference:

Healthy Conflict

• Candid debate about issues

• Direct feedback

• Respectful disagreement with space for emotion

• Challenging ideas without fear

• Discomfort that leads to progress

Dysfunctional Conflict

• Passive silence in meetings

• "Yes, but…" behaviours

• Resentment or eye-rolling

• Avoidance of difficult topics

• Personal attacks or blame-shifting

Teams with strong trust can disagree openly — and constructively — because they know it’s not personal.

“I’m challenging you because I care about getting this right.”

Different Styles of Handling Conflict

It’s also helpful to recognise that people handle conflict differently — and that’s okay.

The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) is a well-known model that outlines five typical approaches to conflict, based on how assertive or cooperative someone is. Understanding these styles can help you spot how people in your team naturally respond to disagreement — and how to adapt your approach.

These are the different conflict styles Thomas-Kilmann identifies and when they are useful.

• Competing - High assertiveness, low cooperativeness. Focused on winning.
  Useful in urgent situations needing quick decisions.

• Collaborating -High assertiveness, high cooperativeness. Seeking win-win solutions.
  Ideal for complex issues where different perspectives strengthen outcomes.

• Compromising - Moderate assertiveness and cooperativeness. Seeking middle ground.
  Good for temporary or time-pressured solutions.

• Avoiding - Low assertiveness and cooperativeness. Steering clear of the issue.
  Appropriate if the issue is trivial or more information is needed.

• Accommodating - Low assertiveness, high cooperativeness. Yielding to maintain harmony.
  Useful when preserving relationships is more important than the issue itself.

No one style is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ — but great teams (and leaders) learn to flex their approach depending on the situation.

Practical Tools for Handling Disagreement Well

Here’s a toolkit you can use straight away to encourage better disagreement and honest conversation in your team:

1. Listen First
   Fully understand the other person’s perspective before responding. Ask clarifying questions like:
   ”Can I check my understanding of what you’re saying?”

2. Confirm the Facts
   Create a shared reality by stating what you’ve heard:
   “I understand you're suggesting X — have I got that right?”

3. Own Your Reaction
   Use emotion constructively by owning your feelings:
   “When I hear this, I feel concerned about X because…”

4. Use “I” Language
   Frame concerns in a way that avoids blame:
   “I’m worried this could affect delivery” vs. “You’re not thinking about the deadline.”

5. Return to Shared Purpose
   Bring the conversation back to mutual goals:
   “I know we both want this project to succeed — my concern is…”

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Questions To Reflect On With Your Team

Use these in a team meeting or workshop to open up a healthy conversation about conflict:

• What kinds of debate or disagreement do we tend to avoid here?

• What’s the impact of avoiding those conversations?

• What do we lose when we don’t challenge each other?

• What signals show that healthy disagreement is tipping into unhelpful conflict?

• Can you think of a relationship that grew stronger because of well-handled conflict? What made that possible?

• What gets in the way of honest disagreement or speaking up here?

Team Exercise: Create Your Team Norm for Debate & Disagreement

Every team needs its own rules for healthy challenge. Ask your team:

• How do we want to handle debate and disagreement going forward?

• What behaviours will help us speak up and listen well?

• What behaviours do we want to avoid?

• What’s one phrase or action that helps you speak up, even when it’s hard?

• What would make it easier to raise concerns or challenge something here?

Capture these as a Team Norm — something everyone can agree to and return to when things get sticky.

Reflection Exercise: What’s Your Relationship With Conflict?

Take 10 minutes to reflect — or bring this into your next team session:

Your personal conflict style:

• When disagreement shows up in a meeting, what’s your instinct — speak up? Shut down? Smooth things over?

• Which of the Thomas-Kilmann conflict styles do you tend to fall into?

• When have you avoided a conflict — and what was the cost?

Your team’s culture:

• Where is your team currently: artificial harmony or healthy debate?

• What’s one conversation your team might be avoiding?

• What’s one thing you could do this week to make disagreement easier or more productive?

• Need Help Creating a Culture of Healthy Conflict?

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Need Help Creating Healthy Conflict in Your Team

Disagreement doesn’t have to feel difficult — but it does take practice, confidence, and sometimes a bit of outside help.

That’s where I come in.

I design and facilitate practical, human team workshops that create space for honest conversation, respectful challenge, and better decision-making.

Whether your team avoids difficult conversations, plays it too safe, or just needs to build confidence in how to disagree well — I can help.

→ Workshops rooted in insight and action.
→ Tools to handle disagreement constructively.
→ Space for people to talk openly — and listen well.

If you’d like to chat about how I could support your team, get in touch.

Call Polly on 07966 475195 or email polly@pollyrobinson.co.uk

5 Steps to Build a Brilliant Team No. 1 It Begins with Trust

“Trust is like Oxygen - we don’t notice it when it’s there, but when it’s not - everything feels harder.”

We often take trust for granted in healthy teams, but the moment it starts to erode, we find ourselves in a very different environment - where even simple interactions and decisions feel like difficult.

That’s why trust sits at the heart of Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team model. Without trust, teams don’t just move slower — they lose their ability to think, act and grow together.

Over the next five blogs, I’m going to explore each of the five elements of Lencioni’s model — but with a twist.

A Quick Intro to Lencioni’s 5 Dysfunctions of a Team Model

Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team model is one of the most widely used frameworks in leadership and team development. First introduced in his 2002 book of the same name, the model outlines five core issues that undermine effective teamwork: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results.

"If you get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time."

Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

It’s often shown as a pyramid — with trust as the essential foundation on which everything else is built. The model has been used in businesses of all sizes and sectors, from startups to global corporations, and continues to be a go-to reference for leaders who want to build stronger, more connected, high-performing teams.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

In this series, I’m using Lencioni’s model not to dwell on dysfunction, but rather than focusing on what goes wrong in teams (we’ve all seen plenty of that), I’m going to flip the lens to explore what good looks like — and how to apply the ideas to your team to make it happy, motivated, productive and succesful.

Here’s what’s coming in this series:

1. Trust — the foundation for everything (this blog)

2. Healthy Conflict — why great teams argue well

3. Commitment — how to create clarity over consensus

4. Accountability — how to hold each other to high standards

5. Results — aligning your team around what really matters

Let’s start where every strong team starts with:

Trust.

What is Trust at Work? In teams, trust isn’t just about liking each other. It’s deeper and more practical than that. Trust means:

• You’ll do what you say you’ll do

• You’re telling me the truth

• You have the team’s best interests at heart

• You care about more than just yourself

When trust is missing, conversations feel more guarded. Decisions take longer. Feedback feels risky. Ideas stay unsaid.

Lencioni talks about vulnerability-based trust — the kind of trust where people feel safe enough to say:

• “I need help.”

• “I got that wrong.”

• “I don’t know the answer.”

Two Types of Trust (and Why You Need Both)

Think about trust in two ways:

1. Trust in Competence

This is the trust that comes from credibility and reliability.

• Do I trust that you know your stuff?

• Have you shown up consistently over time?

• Can I rely on you to deliver?

Credibility is about knowledge, experience and expertise.

Reliability is about showing up, keeping promises, and doing what you said you would.

2. Trust in Relationships

This is the relational side of trust — openness, integrity, fairness.

• Do I trust that you’re honest with me?

• Do I trust your intentions?

• Do I believe you care about me and the team?

When teams have both competence-based trust and relationship-based trust, they move fast, collaborate well, and have the resilience to navigate change together.

Trust is Built (or Eroded) in Every Interaction

Every single interaction we have either strengthens or weakens trust. This is the often invisible dynamic at play in teams. Over time, our experience of working with someone sets an expectation for the future.

If they deliver on their promises? Trust grows.

If they disappear when things get tough? Trust declines.

It’s that simple.

Practical Ways to Build Trust in Your Team

Here’s where it gets practical. If you’re a founder or leader, trust starts with you. People watch what you do more than what you say.

These are some of the most effective trust builders I see in great teams:

1. Be Consistent & Reliable

Make and keep promises — big and small

Show up when it matters

Communicate clearly and follow through

2. Be Vulnerable

Be honest about what you know and what you don’t

Share mistakes and learnings openly

Avoid exaggerating or covering up

3. Build Personal Connection

Get to know people beyond their role

Create space for human conversations

Show curiosity about who they are

4. Focus on the Collective

Be clear that the team’s success comes first

Role model collaboration over competition

Celebrate team wins

5. Give and Receive Feedback

Make feedback part of everyday culture

Be candid, clear and curious

Model how to receive feedback well

What Destroys Trust Fast?

Trust is hard won and easily lost. Watch out for these common trust deflators:

• People acting in self-interest over team interest

• Lack of transparency in decisions

• Unresolved personal conflicts

• Leaders avoiding hard conversations

• Broken promises

Final Thought: Trust is a Choice

Trust is the starting point for everything that makes a team work, but it’s not a given. It’s built with intention, attention, and action.

As a leader, you can’t make people trust each other. But you can create the conditions where trust is most likely to thrive. Ask yourself:

• What’s one thing I could do this week to strengthen trust in my team?

• Where might I need to rebuild or repair trust?

In the next blog in this series, I’ll explore why healthy conflict is a sign of a strong, connected team — and how to create a culture where ideas (and disagreements) can be shared safely.

Because trust isn’t about avoiding conflict — it’s about knowing we can get through it together.

Reflection Exercise: How Strong is Trust in Your Team?

Take 10 minutes to reflect on these questions — or even better, talk them through with your leadership team.

1. Where is trust strong in your team?
   Who do people naturally turn to for help?
   Where do you see openness, honesty, and healthy challenge?

2. Where might trust be fragile or under strain?
   Are there unspoken tensions, silences, or things left unsaid?
   Do people hesitate to ask for help or admit mistakes?

3. What small action could you take this week to strengthen trust?
   Could you share a learning or mistake openly?
   Ask for feedback?
   Make a commitment — and follow through?

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Need Help Building Trust in Your Team?

Trust can be built. But it takes time, intention — and sometimes a bit of outside help.

That’s where I come in.

I design and facilitate team workshops that create space for honest conversation, stronger relationships, and practical tools for working better together.

Whether your team is growing fast, navigating change, or just feeling a bit disconnected - I can help.

I design and facilitate practical, human team workshops that help people connect, communicate better, and build the trust they need to work brilliantly together.

• → Workshops rooted in insight and action.

• → Tools to build trust and healthy challenge.

• → Space for people to talk (really talk).

If you’d like to chat about how I could support your team, get in touch. Call Polly on 07966 475195 or email polly@pollyrobinson.co.uk