New to the Team? Here’s How to Build Trust

Competence is your ability to do something efficiently and successfully. When others perceive you as competent, they believe that you have the skills and knowledge to do what you say you will.

This allows them to perceive you as dependable, reliable, and predictable — all of which are essential drivers of trust.

Benevolence is the quality of being well-meaning and the degree to which you have others interests at heart.

Other will grow to trust you based on the extent to which they believe you care about their interests, and have the motivation to go beyond your self-needs to cater to the team’s needs.

Integrity is how you adhere to strong moral principles and how honest you are. Integrity is hard to judge and critical for trust building.

A lot of behaviors at work are seen as instrumental and strategic, leaving people ambiguous about whether actions are coming from underlying values or merely a façade. Thus, the more opportunities you have to articulate your values explicitly and to allow team members to see your values in action, the more likely they will have faith in you and invest their trust in you.