Trust at the Helm: Why CEO Trust Matters for Executive Team Performance

A CEO's ability to inspire trust among their executive team sets the tone for the entire company. At Roster, we specialize in unraveling the intricacies of executive team dynamics through our comprehensive 360 reviews. Our data-backed experience proves that trust is a core foundation for high-performing teams.

The Data

Among 70 skills that we measure in our evaluation, trustworthiness consistently ranks as the highest average score for executives: a mean of 6.34 on our 7 point Likert scale. This high average score reinforces the principle that trust-building is a fundamental necessity for executives — it is difficult to operate at an executive level in the absence of trust.

Diving deeper into our data, we see a large delta in execution ability for high-trust versus low-trust executives. Low-trust executives, defined as executives with a trust score of under 6.0, have an average execution score of 4.9, a full standard deviation below the mean. Their high-trust counterparts, with trust scores over 6.5, have an average execution score of 6.1, half a standard deviation above the mean.

Defining Trust

Trust is a willingness to be vulnerable and rely on others with the expectation that they will act in a manner that is consistent with one's own expectations, values, and interests. In executive leadership, trust includes a reliance on one's decision-making capabilities, ability to deliver results as expected, and to maintain confidentiality. Trust is a cornerstone of effective leadership and critical to fostering open communication, employee loyalty, and employee satisfaction.

A CEO's Role

Throughout the years, we've found that consistent company culture must originate at the highest levels to permeate throughout the entire organization. Employees look to their leaders for guidance, inspiration, and direction. When they perceive trust at the top, they are more likely to reciprocate that trust among themselves and in their interactions with clients and fellow employees. A CEO's role is to model a high benchmark for trust-building behavior that the rest of the organization may follow through turbulent times.

The Ripple Effect of Trust

Trust within a team has profound implications for performance. This is shown in a research initiative at Google called Project Aristotle. The purpose of the projects was to identify the key factors that contribute to the success of teams within a company. Over two years, researchers examined hundreds of teams across different departments and locations, analyzing various team dynamics and characteristics.

Initially, Google hypothesized that individual talent would be the most important trait of a high-performing team (individual talent defined by the unique skills, expertise, and capabilities of each team members). However, as the research progressed, it was found that the presence of these factors within a team did not reliable predict success.

Instead, they discovered that the most critical factor contributing to a team's success was psychological safety, which is a key ingredient of trust within a team. Teams where members felt safe to take risks and be vulnerable without fear of judgment or reprisal consistently outperformed others.

For example, the best teams in the study consistently asked for feedback and admitted openly to mistakes. A culture of trust allowed for open communication to exist, leading to quick and efficient problem-solving without the shame of "messing up".

Conversely, the poor performing teams - those lacking psychological safety - tended to be more rigid, hierarchical, and less productive. These members were reluctant to speak up, afraid of being criticized or ignored.

All teams face conflict. Letting issues fester by keeping them hidden only allow the original problem to live on. Being truthful about shortcomings helps us nip problems in the bud and builds personal confidence, allowing the entire team to keep moving forward. Trust is a key ingredient in creating this environment.

Assessing and Building Team Trust

At Roster, we empower CEOs and their executive teams with actionable insights into their personal and team dynamics through comprehensive 360 reviews. By providing executives with a holistic view of their leadership effectiveness and trustworthiness, we help them identify areas for improvement and leverage their strengths to drive organizational performance. After identifying their areas of opportunity, executives committed to cultivating trust within their executive teams can take action to demonstrate authentic leadership.

  • Invite and Encourage Feedback: Executives can begin by engaging in open and honest conversations with their team members to understand their concerns and perception of specific issues. Making it clear that all voices are valuable and feedback is welcome creates an environment where people can admit to uncertainties without fear of penalty.

  • Tell Stories Around Past Failures: Telling stories about past mistakes, the lessons learned, and the corrective actions taken illustrates how setbacks are part of the process and are often steppingstones towards success. Presenting failures as an integral part of growth, rather than hiding them, encourages safe risk-taking and innovation.

  • Model Vulnerability: Executives should acknowledge their own past missteps and demonstrate transparency in addressing those issues. By admitting they do not have all the answers and are open to growing, leaders encourage a culture of learning and development.

  • Be Consistent: By applying these principles consistently across all levels and functions in the organizations, executives reinforce their authenticity and integrity, further fortifying a culture of trust and psychological safety.

_____________

Ready to learn more on your leadership development journey? Contact us at Roster to find out how we can help. Experience the Roster difference.

_____________

Works Cited

Cuhigg, C. (2016, February 25). What Google learned from its quest to build the perfect team. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html

Project Aristotle Psychological Safety. (n.d.). https://www.leaderfactor.com/learn/project-aristotle-psychological-safety

A CEO's ability to inspire trust among their executive team sets the tone for the entire company. At Roster, we specialize in unraveling the intricacies of executive team dynamics through our comprehensive 360 reviews. Our data-backed experience proves that trust is a core foundation for high-performing teams.

The Data

Among 70 skills that we measure in our evaluation, trustworthiness consistently ranks as the highest average score for executives: a mean of 6.34 on our 7 point Likert scale. This high average score reinforces the principle that trust-building is a fundamental necessity for executives — it is difficult to operate at an executive level in the absence of trust.

Diving deeper into our data, we see a large delta in execution ability for high-trust versus low-trust executives. Low-trust executives, defined as executives with a trust score of under 6.0, have an average execution score of 4.9, a full standard deviation below the mean. Their high-trust counterparts, with trust scores over 6.5, have an average execution score of 6.1, half a standard deviation above the mean.

Defining Trust

Trust is a willingness to be vulnerable and rely on others with the expectation that they will act in a manner that is consistent with one's own expectations, values, and interests. In executive leadership, trust includes a reliance on one's decision-making capabilities, ability to deliver results as expected, and to maintain confidentiality. Trust is a cornerstone of effective leadership and critical to fostering open communication, employee loyalty, and employee satisfaction.

A CEO's Role

Throughout the years, we've found that consistent company culture must originate at the highest levels to permeate throughout the entire organization. Employees look to their leaders for guidance, inspiration, and direction. When they perceive trust at the top, they are more likely to reciprocate that trust among themselves and in their interactions with clients and fellow employees. A CEO's role is to model a high benchmark for trust-building behavior that the rest of the organization may follow through turbulent times.

The Ripple Effect of Trust

Trust within a team has profound implications for performance. This is shown in a research initiative at Google called Project Aristotle. The purpose of the projects was to identify the key factors that contribute to the success of teams within a company. Over two years, researchers examined hundreds of teams across different departments and locations, analyzing various team dynamics and characteristics.

Initially, Google hypothesized that individual talent would be the most important trait of a high-performing team (individual talent defined by the unique skills, expertise, and capabilities of each team members). However, as the research progressed, it was found that the presence of these factors within a team did not reliable predict success.

Instead, they discovered that the most critical factor contributing to a team's success was psychological safety, which is a key ingredient of trust within a team. Teams where members felt safe to take risks and be vulnerable without fear of judgment or reprisal consistently outperformed others.

For example, the best teams in the study consistently asked for feedback and admitted openly to mistakes. A culture of trust allowed for open communication to exist, leading to quick and efficient problem-solving without the shame of "messing up".

Conversely, the poor performing teams - those lacking psychological safety - tended to be more rigid, hierarchical, and less productive. These members were reluctant to speak up, afraid of being criticized or ignored.

All teams face conflict. Letting issues fester by keeping them hidden only allow the original problem to live on. Being truthful about shortcomings helps us nip problems in the bud and builds personal confidence, allowing the entire team to keep moving forward. Trust is a key ingredient in creating this environment.

Assessing and Building Team Trust

At Roster, we empower CEOs and their executive teams with actionable insights into their personal and team dynamics through comprehensive 360 reviews. By providing executives with a holistic view of their leadership effectiveness and trustworthiness, we help them identify areas for improvement and leverage their strengths to drive organizational performance. After identifying their areas of opportunity, executives committed to cultivating trust within their executive teams can take action to demonstrate authentic leadership.

  • Invite and Encourage Feedback: Executives can begin by engaging in open and honest conversations with their team members to understand their concerns and perception of specific issues. Making it clear that all voices are valuable and feedback is welcome creates an environment where people can admit to uncertainties without fear of penalty.

  • Tell Stories Around Past Failures: Telling stories about past mistakes, the lessons learned, and the corrective actions taken illustrates how setbacks are part of the process and are often steppingstones towards success. Presenting failures as an integral part of growth, rather than hiding them, encourages safe risk-taking and innovation.

  • Model Vulnerability: Executives should acknowledge their own past missteps and demonstrate transparency in addressing those issues. By admitting they do not have all the answers and are open to growing, leaders encourage a culture of learning and development.

  • Be Consistent: By applying these principles consistently across all levels and functions in the organizations, executives reinforce their authenticity and integrity, further fortifying a culture of trust and psychological safety.

_____________

Ready to learn more on your leadership development journey? Contact us at Roster to find out how we can help. Experience the Roster difference.

_____________

Works Cited

Cuhigg, C. (2016, February 25). What Google learned from its quest to build the perfect team. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html

Project Aristotle Psychological Safety. (n.d.). https://www.leaderfactor.com/learn/project-aristotle-psychological-safety

A CEO's ability to inspire trust among their executive team sets the tone for the entire company. At Roster, we specialize in unraveling the intricacies of executive team dynamics through our comprehensive 360 reviews. Our data-backed experience proves that trust is a core foundation for high-performing teams.

The Data

Among 70 skills that we measure in our evaluation, trustworthiness consistently ranks as the highest average score for executives: a mean of 6.34 on our 7 point Likert scale. This high average score reinforces the principle that trust-building is a fundamental necessity for executives — it is difficult to operate at an executive level in the absence of trust.

Diving deeper into our data, we see a large delta in execution ability for high-trust versus low-trust executives. Low-trust executives, defined as executives with a trust score of under 6.0, have an average execution score of 4.9, a full standard deviation below the mean. Their high-trust counterparts, with trust scores over 6.5, have an average execution score of 6.1, half a standard deviation above the mean.

Defining Trust

Trust is a willingness to be vulnerable and rely on others with the expectation that they will act in a manner that is consistent with one's own expectations, values, and interests. In executive leadership, trust includes a reliance on one's decision-making capabilities, ability to deliver results as expected, and to maintain confidentiality. Trust is a cornerstone of effective leadership and critical to fostering open communication, employee loyalty, and employee satisfaction.

A CEO's Role

Throughout the years, we've found that consistent company culture must originate at the highest levels to permeate throughout the entire organization. Employees look to their leaders for guidance, inspiration, and direction. When they perceive trust at the top, they are more likely to reciprocate that trust among themselves and in their interactions with clients and fellow employees. A CEO's role is to model a high benchmark for trust-building behavior that the rest of the organization may follow through turbulent times.

The Ripple Effect of Trust

Trust within a team has profound implications for performance. This is shown in a research initiative at Google called Project Aristotle. The purpose of the projects was to identify the key factors that contribute to the success of teams within a company. Over two years, researchers examined hundreds of teams across different departments and locations, analyzing various team dynamics and characteristics.

Initially, Google hypothesized that individual talent would be the most important trait of a high-performing team (individual talent defined by the unique skills, expertise, and capabilities of each team members). However, as the research progressed, it was found that the presence of these factors within a team did not reliable predict success.

Instead, they discovered that the most critical factor contributing to a team's success was psychological safety, which is a key ingredient of trust within a team. Teams where members felt safe to take risks and be vulnerable without fear of judgment or reprisal consistently outperformed others.

For example, the best teams in the study consistently asked for feedback and admitted openly to mistakes. A culture of trust allowed for open communication to exist, leading to quick and efficient problem-solving without the shame of "messing up".

Conversely, the poor performing teams - those lacking psychological safety - tended to be more rigid, hierarchical, and less productive. These members were reluctant to speak up, afraid of being criticized or ignored.

All teams face conflict. Letting issues fester by keeping them hidden only allow the original problem to live on. Being truthful about shortcomings helps us nip problems in the bud and builds personal confidence, allowing the entire team to keep moving forward. Trust is a key ingredient in creating this environment.

Assessing and Building Team Trust

At Roster, we empower CEOs and their executive teams with actionable insights into their personal and team dynamics through comprehensive 360 reviews. By providing executives with a holistic view of their leadership effectiveness and trustworthiness, we help them identify areas for improvement and leverage their strengths to drive organizational performance. After identifying their areas of opportunity, executives committed to cultivating trust within their executive teams can take action to demonstrate authentic leadership.

  • Invite and Encourage Feedback: Executives can begin by engaging in open and honest conversations with their team members to understand their concerns and perception of specific issues. Making it clear that all voices are valuable and feedback is welcome creates an environment where people can admit to uncertainties without fear of penalty.

  • Tell Stories Around Past Failures: Telling stories about past mistakes, the lessons learned, and the corrective actions taken illustrates how setbacks are part of the process and are often steppingstones towards success. Presenting failures as an integral part of growth, rather than hiding them, encourages safe risk-taking and innovation.

  • Model Vulnerability: Executives should acknowledge their own past missteps and demonstrate transparency in addressing those issues. By admitting they do not have all the answers and are open to growing, leaders encourage a culture of learning and development.

  • Be Consistent: By applying these principles consistently across all levels and functions in the organizations, executives reinforce their authenticity and integrity, further fortifying a culture of trust and psychological safety.

_____________

Ready to learn more on your leadership development journey? Contact us at Roster to find out how we can help. Experience the Roster difference.

_____________

Works Cited

Cuhigg, C. (2016, February 25). What Google learned from its quest to build the perfect team. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html

Project Aristotle Psychological Safety. (n.d.). https://www.leaderfactor.com/learn/project-aristotle-psychological-safety