One-on-Ones

Building trust meeting template

Get insights on how to improve the trust each team member has in you.

How to build trust as a manager

Building trusting relationships is one of the great management skills. When trust is high, performance and engagement are high too. As a manager, you need to build this trust with each employee from the start and continue to nurture it over time. Focusing on trust is even more important when your organization goes through a change or is growing fast.

The key to mastering trust is to create an open line of communication. And one-on-ones are a great way to do it! Each employee can talk to you honestly about their needs, concerns, and goals in every one-on-one meeting. It’s a time for you to listen and connect to them personally. It’s also a good moment to practice transparency and own mistakes on your side as well. That way, they’ll see that you trust them back.

When you should use these trust-building questions

How do you know if an employee trusts you? The answer: ask them the right questions! We created a template with questions that target trust issues. During your one-on-one, these questions will help you get the right insights and spot any trust-related issues.

Use this template when you see trust-declining symptoms like:

Your employee doesn’t communicate any concerns with you in times of change.
Your team member doesn’t acknowledge mistakes in front of you or doesn’t ask for your support.
Your employee doesn’t voice their ideas.
Your team member doesn’t share any feedback with you or any recent challenges they face.

The impact of trust in a team

Trust is the fuel for engagement, performance, and strong relationships. Here are some examples of changes you might notice when trust is at a high level:

People are ready to deal with changes – even those that happen quickly, and they positively influence others.
Burnout doesn’t happen often and you can tell there is a low level of stress.
Difficult conversations happen more easily both as a team and with each employee.
People share their ideas and bring their creativity and innovation to the team!