Trust From the Trenches: Creating High-Performing Teams with Military Precision | Scott McCarthy | Episode 308

Scott McCarthy [00:00:08]:
Welcome 1. Welcome all to the Peak Performance Leadership Podcast. A weekly podcast series dedicated to helping you hit peak performance across the three domains of leadership. Those being leading yourself, leading your team, and leading your organization. This podcast couples my 20 years of military experience as a senior Canadian army officer with world class guests, bringing you the most complete podcast of leadership going. And for more, feel free to check out our website at movingforwardleadership.com. And with that, let’s get to the show.

Scott McCarthy [00:00:50]:
Yes. Welcome, 1. Welcome, all. It is your chief leadership officer, Scott McCarthy, and welcome to this week’s Monday military leadership insight where I take my experience as a senior Canadian army officer, and I give it to you so you can take it and use it for your everyday life. Hey. You guys asked. I’m bringing it. You wanted more information, more experience, and more examples of my military leadership background, so I’m here to give it to you today, and today’s topic is one super, duper, uber important, and that is building trust within teams.

Scott McCarthy [00:01:31]:
Military, we have this thing about building high performing teams. It’s what we strive to do every single team were a part of we know and we’re it’s ingrained in us from basic training onwards that you are not an individual, but rather you are part of a team and the team’s best is more important than your best. So what’s best for the team is more important than what’s best for you is what I’m trying to say here, and that is ingrained in us right from day 1. So when we’re thinking about it though, like, we’re constantly changing teams so in the army. Constantly. You know, every year our teams change because people leave to get what’s called posted, I e, transferred, and new people get transferred in. It is just a fact of life in the forces, Just the way we do it, and if you think about it, each time that occurs we have a new team of new team members, new teams. So we’re constantly going through this whole iteration process of building the team, building trust within the teams, and more most importantly, executing on that trust to achieve peak performance.

Scott McCarthy [00:02:58]:
So you as a leader, no doubt, you’re listening to this podcast. It’s called peak performance leadership. So, therefore, you’re interested in achieving peak performance because why else would you be here? Right? So let’s talk about this uber important step in establishing peak performance by establishing trust within our teams. Now understand why is this so important? Why do we harp on this so much within military? And that is I’ve often said, here in the podcast, trust is the cornerstone of leadership. Without trust, everything else falls apart. You simply cannot lead. You will not follow if there was no trust. You cannot establish psychological safety.

Scott McCarthy [00:03:48]:
You cannot manage resources. You can’t make proper decisions. You can’t do anything as a leader without trust. You have to trust your members, and you need to go forth and earn their trust. Now, what we’re gonna be talking about today is a lot of inter team trust building. I e how we get our team members also to trust our them each other, not just up and down the leadership change, but also the lateral one. Now, that being said, let’s talk about what happens when there is a lack of trust. When there’s a lack of trust, you will get people who turn on each other.

Scott McCarthy [00:04:32]:
They’ll throw each other under the bus if something goes awry. Okay? They all try to step over or on top of one another to get to whatever it is they’re looking to go after next. There’ll be a lot a lack of accountability within a team when there’s a lack of trust. And I’ve seen this. I’ve seen it in military teams even. Okay? People throwing others under the bus. Some trying, you know, going forth and putting others down so that they can go ahead and get what they want. What happens is is then, you know, people believe that the others are not doing their job, and sometimes you get people going forward and believing that, and then acting on that, you know.

Scott McCarthy [00:05:28]:
So, not only are they doing their job, but they’re going forth and doing the other person’s job because there’s a lack of trust. This will breed negativity, and essentially will infect your team like a cancer. And suddenly no one trusts anybody, and you get everyone just inter squabbling along with each other. So let’s make sure we, you know, we don’t have that. Let’s make sure that for you, you go forth and build trust within your teams. Now, first way to go about building trust is communication. Communicating clearly, you as a leader to your team, and communicating clearly, you have to establish those clear lines of communications. You have to enable your people to talk to you.

Scott McCarthy [00:06:22]:
You have to enable your people to talk to each other. Alright? And one of the most important ways to establish trust amongst team members is to facilitate communication that has absolutely nothing to do with work. I know that sounds odd. I know that sounds, you know, against all logic, but the reality is when we know each other on a deeper level and a personal level, we trust each other more. Easier, more effective, we trust each other when we know each other at that deeper level. So if you’re able, you know, find ways to establish that communication of open communication of stuff outside of work. A great tactic for you to do is, you know, have breakfast or lunch with the team and establish a ground rule of no shop talk. 0.

Scott McCarthy [00:07:28]:
None. Force the team members to talk about other things other than work. Maybe it’s their hall hobbies. Maybe it’s their holidays they have upcoming. Maybe it’s their family. Doesn’t matter. Force them to talk about things outside of work. And another way to double down on that is saying that the first person who talks about work has to pick up the tab.

Scott McCarthy [00:07:53]:
Are you in or are you out? K. That enables communication. Now, that being said, building trust through communication occasionally still does need to, you know, have work involved. Right? So we need to open those lines of communications. We have to open them, you know, up and down. So between me or you and your team, you know, through your debriefing sessions where you enable a sense of psychological safety with your team members during the debriefing sessions when you’re talking to them about anything. Okay, and asking them what they think about it. How do they feel about what is being discussed? Talk to them and enable them to open up, and most importantly, listen to understand.

Scott McCarthy [00:08:50]:
I had a leader once who listened to respond, and let me tell you, there was no trust between him and I. I did not trust that guy because I felt like he never actually took time to understand what it is that I was telling him. Therefore, I questioned whether or not he thought I was an incredible subordinate to him. This guy doesn’t care what I think because he’s constantly trying to go, but but but encounter whatever point, whatever argument I had with him. Okay? So listen to understand. Open the lines of communication. Have the open door policy. Actually actually allow for it to happen.

Scott McCarthy [00:09:39]:
I’ve seen too many times leaders out there who say, oh, I got an open door policy, except for this, that, those times, only, you know, twice on Tuesday. If, you know, the sun and moon are aligned and it’s a red moon, whatever. Like, no. If you have open door policy, that means whoever is at your door is the most important thing at that moment. And if something is super urgent and you can’t see them at that moment, apologize. Tell them that unfortunately you can’t talk to them right then, but you know they’re important. Therefore, please come back at a specified time and make sure you have that time blocked off for that person. Ask them how much time do they need.

Scott McCarthy [00:10:23]:
5 minutes? Awesome. Put it in your calendar. 50 minutes? Amazing. Put that in your calendar. Whatever. Just follow-up with it. K? Now that’s, you know, up and down. Let’s talk about across, and a great way to establish trust across through those after action reviews, which I’ve talked about actually, I talked about last week, so go back to episode 3 o.

Scott McCarthy [00:10:51]:
Let me double check before I say a number I don’t want to, mess up. It is a 306. So lead dump boss.comforward/306. I talk all about the AAR. So use those, and what you’re gonna do is enable people to talk across each other to each other. Alright? So that enables them to discuss and what you’re hearing. You know, between them, they’re gonna understand, and they’re gonna hear each other’s side and perspectives, and that in turn builds trust. So that is building trust through communication.

Scott McCarthy [00:11:34]:
Now, there are a few other ways to build trust amongst teams. The next is leading by example. You, as a leader, you need to lead by example. So when you don’t, that immediately decays trust within a team. When you’re not leading by example, that’s going to decay trust because you’re gonna have some team members who go, well, we have to do it this way regardless the boss does it or not, And then others gonna be like, well, if they’re not doing it, why should I do it? And suddenly, you now have a conflict between the 2 different team members. You must set the example. You must follow it. And, yes, sometimes, you know what? There are times when, for example, I I get to show up later or leave earlier, but whenever I am talking to my subordinates and I’m letting them know, like, yeah.

Scott McCarthy [00:12:29]:
I gotta leave you here for the such and such reason, or I’m gonna show up later tomorrow because of such and such a reason. K? And you and I enable those people to do so as well within reason. There are just sometimes there are benefits to the role that you’re in. Understood. People understand that, but as long as you’re transparent with them, enable them to see what it is that you’re leading by example. The rules apply to you just as much as it applies to the rest of the team, and with that, you’re able to build integrity and accountability. Accountability is super important because what happens when people aren’t being held accountable? So, let’s say give you example. If everyone’s to be in work by 9, and someone is constantly showing up at 9:30 and leaving at the same time as the rest of the team and no accountability is held, there is no trust.

Scott McCarthy [00:13:33]:
Trust will erode because you have people like, well, why can’t I show up at 9:30? Why are they always rules don’t apply to them like they apply to us? No. It is super important to accountability. And that’s a negative connotation of accountability. Let’s use a positive one. So when there’s a lot of trust within a team, someone is having a hard time. Maybe a child has been sick for a while. Running on low on sleep, already got a new baby, and there’s a report that’s due. And when your team members checks in on them, like, hey, Joe, how’s TPS report doing? Like, this kid is just killing me.

Scott McCarthy [00:14:16]:
I I it’s all time. I’m exhausted. It’s really hard for me to focus. You know what, Joe? I got you. I got your back. This is a positive form of accountability because you’re checking in on Joe or your team member’s checking in on Joe, and you realize Joe is not gonna make it. So instead of simply just like, well, good luck with that. No.

Scott McCarthy [00:14:40]:
They right? They trust that if the tables return, Joe would have their back, and Joe trusts them to take that TPS report and do it, fill it, do whatever needs to be done with it. K? This is a very, highly effective form of accountability. This is how high performing teams actually employ accountability. It’s not the negative connotation, it’s actually the positive connotation. Accountability is so powerful because it shows the team members have each other’s backs when those times get tough. So these are just a few examples how you build some trust. Okay. Let’s talk about maintaining trust though.

Scott McCarthy [00:15:30]:
Maintaining trust is simple. You just need feeding it. You have to feed it. Alright? You have to feed the trust beast. You have to keep putting your tokens in, and, you know, doing those things. So showing up daily, leading by example, enabling, you know, consistently enabling these conversations. Okay? Positive accountability, negative accountability when required, show leading with integrity. These are all ways that you go ahead.

Scott McCarthy [00:16:01]:
It is consistency, which drives the maintenance of trust over time. K? Being consistent, that is how we do it in the military. We have to be consistent. I am known to be firm yet fair. People trust that. They understand. Alright. Go inside the lines.

Scott McCarthy [00:16:24]:
You can be firm with me while I know it’s gonna be fair, and that drives trust. However, there can be setbacks from time to time. Right? There might be misunderstandings. There might be failures with the team, and it could erode trust. Maybe someone messed up. Maybe someone took advantage of someone else. Maybe someone okay. Maybe I made a bad bad decision as a leader.

Scott McCarthy [00:16:54]:
These are all common setbacks in the trust aspect. So how do we overcome this? We overcome it by showing humility, being transparent, applying accountability, and returning back to the basics. So, like, hey. I made a mistake. Not perfect. K? I thought that going down this route was best for the following reasons, x y zed. However, because of a, b, c, I’ve since learnt that is not the way we should be going. So we’re going to do changes D, E, and F to get down the right road.

Scott McCarthy [00:17:40]:
That is a way of being humble and transparent, rallying the team, because now they understand. Okay. This is the way we’re gonna go. Wasn’t too sure about the boss, but you know what? I think so. Similar to your team members, okay, someone makes a mistake, and they’re like, you know, I had one member, you know, no longer trust another. I’m like, you just got the conversation with them and understand their perspective. And lo and behold, after they had a conversation, they’re able to hash those things out. They started trusting each other again, but you have to use those words.

Scott McCarthy [00:18:24]:
Show some hill humility. Use appreciative inquiry, I e asking questions to better understand, being transparent about what your thoughts and feelings were, listen to understand, vice to respond. Use those words with your members when they have issues of trust between each other, and that will help them rebuild it. So there you go, ladies and gentlemen. That is all about building trust within teams. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Tried to bring in some personal experiences, while at the same time trying to remain confidential with either what was going on or, you know, the people’s actual identities too because that’s how we maintain trust. Right? So, there you go.

Scott McCarthy [00:19:15]:
Nonetheless, hope you enjoyed this episode. Hope you enjoy the segment. If you do, let me know. If you got some improvements, let me know. I’m hoping to hear from you. And if you’re a leader, you’re not too sure about what you’re doing, you feel some imposter syndrome, check out our leader growth mastermind at leaddon’tboss.com/mastermind. What you’ll find there is a community of leaders just like yourself who are thriving now as members of this community. They show up with imposter syndrome.

Scott McCarthy [00:19:50]:
They show up not knowing where to go, and suddenly, they’re moving in the direction which they never thought was possible. Actually, I was on a call not too long ago, and a couple members were talking just back and forth about where they were not so long ago and where they are now and the extreme differences between the 2. And it literally as the facilitator, as the main head coach, it kinda brought a tear to my eye. I won’t lie. It was something great to hear. So, you know, you feel the imposter syndrome, you feel lonely as a leader, you need to reach out to others. Have a community for that. It is the leader in growth mastermind.

Scott McCarthy [00:20:30]:
Come join us now. It’s only $49 a month. It’s literally less than a cup of coffee a day, and what you’re going to get out of it, let me tell you so much more than that. So lead don’t boss.comforward/mastermind. With that, as always, lead don’t boss and take care now.

Scott McCarthy [00:20:51]:
And that’s a wrap for this episode, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for listening. Thank you for supporting the Peak Performance Leadership podcast. But you know what you could do to truly support the podcast? And no, that’s not leaving a rating and review. It’s simply helping a friend, and that is helping a friend by sharing this episode with them. If you think this would resonate with them and help them elevate their performance level, whether that’s within themselves, their teams, or their organization. So do that. Help me, help a friend win win all around and hey, you look like a great friend at the same time.

Scott McCarthy [00:21:29]:
So just hit that little share button on your app and then feel free to fire this episode to anyone that you feel would benefit from it. Finally, there’s always more. There’s always more lessons around being the highest performing leader that you can possibly be whether that’s for yourself, your team, or your organization. So why don’t you subscribe? Subscribe to the show via movingforwardleadership.comforward/subscribe. And until next time, we eat, don’t boss, and thanks for coming out. Take care now.