Feel. Think. Act. Talk. Trust.

How much do you trust each of your team members? Do you trust each one differently? Probably. Unless you trust all of them unconditionally or none of them at all, each member of your team has earned a different degree of your trust.

Naturally you want to get to a point where you can trust all of them with almost anything. Until then you have to evaluate how much you trust each and assign responsibilities to each accordingly. To some extent you do this already. But consider formalizing your evaluations.

Use the following four steps to evaluate each member of your team. Imagine that you have to assign an important project. As you consider assigning the project to each person, apply each of these Feel, Think, Act, Talk checks.

Check Your gut. How do you feel emotionally?

Are you excited or apprehensive? If you had to decide this second without thinking, would you trust that the task will be completed on time and with quality? Given what you feel, is trust evident with this team member?

Check your mind. What do you think the outcome will be?

Given what you think, is trust reasonable? As objectively as possible, consider how past assignments have turned out. Evaluate only actual events rather than general impressions.

Check your body. How does it react?

When you think of this person, what is happening in your body? Do your muscles tense? When you meet with this person, if you avoid eye contact, move closer or speak more loudly to ensure your point is understood, you probably don’t trust them.

Check your words. Do you over-communicate?

Some of your team members may cause you to explain things in greater detail to ensure they understand a task and what you expect them to deliver. Others need much less detail because your trust level is so high.

Who Do You Trust?

If you answer in the positive to all four modes above, you probably have high trust. Otherwise look into each person more carefully to identify your specific trust issues. As your measure your trust, assign work, and check your evaluation against results, you will fine tune your Feel. Think. Act. Talk. evaluation skills.

If you want to learn how to Feel. Think. Act. Talk. in ways that build trust and get things done through others, contact us to engage in our workshops or leadership development solutions.

Want to receive leadership news updates? Subscribe!

Follow us on LinkedIn