Creating The Right Environment

Creating The Right Environment

Every team wants to have positive relationships, but few really take the time to foster this behavior. Instead, groups resort to mandatory after-hours outings or team-building activities filled with trust falls in hopes that will do the trick. However, if you really want to build strong relationships with your team, hosting weekend events isn’t enough. You must create the right environment for it.

Having shared rituals is a good start, but it must go deeper than that. Healthy, team-based relationships are built on a foundation of trust. Trust requires three things: character, competence and connection. Here’s a breakdown of these three attributes:

• Character – Character is based on integrity. It means you are open, honest and transparent. You do what you say you’re going to do. When you do this, people trust you will follow through.

• Competence – Competence means you have the knowledge and skills to do the job at hand. Trust is built when you demonstrate your abilities and people can count on you to get the job done well.

• Connection – People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. When you take the time to build relationships with your team, they will be more likely to trust you. Connection matters.

If you want to build a strong team, start by building trust. As coaches on staff, we must model this behavior first. After us, comes the members of each individual group. Be the type of swimmer and teammate that you want around you on the good days, and even more so on the bad days.

Trust isn’t built overnight, but it is a worthwhile investment. And, it won’t mean that everyone in your group or your team will automatically become best friends, but focusing on trust is the best way to create an environment where team-based relationships can develop. 

It is a lot easier to show up and work your butt off every day if you know you are coming to a space where you feel welcomed.

Go SMAC!

Julian