Trust: The Foundation of a Cohesive Team (Part 2)

When people are careful about admitting mistakes, reluctant to ask for help, hesitant to challenge an idea, or unsure whether they can rely on one another, a team may not need another process. It may need to strengthen trust.

Trust-building is particularly valuable when a team is newly formed, navigating significant change, integrating new leaders or members, experiencing guarded communication, or struggling to have honest conversations. It can also be valuable for an already successful team that wants to strengthen collaboration before challenges emerge.

Patrick Lencioni places trust at the foundation of team effectiveness in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and reinforces its importance in The Advantage. Within his model, trust is not simply about believing that colleagues are competent or dependable. It is vulnerability-based trust, where people are willing to lower their defenses, acknowledge mistakes and limitations, and ask one another for help. Lencioni’s Five Behaviors materials similarly describe trust as the willingness to be vulnerable with teammates rather than spending energy protecting one's image.

What if we approached this first cohesive behavior through a strengths-based lens?

From “What’s Wrong?” to “What’s Strong?”

Lencioni’s original framework is powerful because it identifies the dysfunctions that can undermine a team: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results.

A strengths-based approach does not ignore those challenges. It simply changes our starting question. Instead of asking: “Why don’t we trust each other?” we might ask: “When are we at our best together, and what do we do that creates trust?”

That shift matters.

Teams usually have moments when trust is already present, perhaps when someone asks for help without hesitation, another person acknowledges a mistake, colleagues openly disagree without making it personal, or a team member draws upon someone else’s expertise.

A strengths-based approach helps the team notice those moments, identify the behaviors underneath them, and intentionally create more of them.

Research examining Lencioni’s model also provides support for the importance of trust. Hamlin’s validation study found literature support for all five of Lencioni’s characteristics and reported strong to very strong relationships among the characteristics and team effectiveness. 

Trust Makes Vulnerability Productive

There is also an important connection between Lencioni’s vulnerability-based trust and Amy Edmondson’s research on psychological safety.

Edmondson defines team psychological safety as a shared belief that a team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. Her study of 51 work teams found psychological safety was associated with team learning behavior. The concepts are not identical, but there is a useful connection for leaders.

People need environments where interpersonal risk feels possible.

Saying: “I made a mistake.”. “I don’t know.”, “Can you help me?”, “I see this differently.”, requires some degree of interpersonal risk.

Lencioni’s model argues that vulnerability-based trust allows team members to lower their guard and be transparent with one another. Without it, people may devote energy to concealing weaknesses, avoiding requests for help, or questioning colleagues' intentions. 

From a strengths perspective, vulnerability is therefore not weakness. It creates an opportunity for someone else’s strength to enter the room. If I can openly say, “This isn’t my strength,” I create space for a colleague to say, “It’s one of mine. Let me help.”

That is where trust becomes a team capability rather than simply a relationship quality.

A Simple Activity: “Trust Through Strengths”

Here is a short activity I use conceptually when thinking about strengths-based team development. It can be adapted for a regular team meeting or leadership offsite.

Ask each person to complete these three statements:

1. One strength I bring to this team is... Identify something you consistently contribute when the team is at its best.

2. One strength I see in another team member is... Name a specific contribution you value and briefly describe when you have seen it demonstrated.

3. One area where I could rely on this team more is... Identify something where asking for support, perspective, expertise, or challenge could make you more effective.

Then discuss:

• What did we learn about the strengths available within this team?

• Where are we underutilizing one another?

• What would asking for help more readily look like?

• What is one behavior we could practice that would strengthen trust?

The leader should participate, ideally sharing first. Lencioni emphasizes the importance of leaders modeling vulnerability rather than expecting team members to go first. 

The goal is not forced disclosure; it is to make strength, interdependence, and asking for help normal parts of how the team works.

Trust Is Built in Small Moments

Trust rarely comes from one dramatic team-building event. It develops through repeated interactions: admitting a mistake, asking a question, offering help, keeping a commitment, acknowledging someone else’s expertise, or saying “I don’t know” when pretending would be easier.

For leaders, the question may therefore be less: “Does my team trust each other?”and more: “What behaviors are we practicing that make trust easier?”

A cohesive team does not require everyone to be strong at everything. It requires enough trust to recognize where we are strong, acknowledge where we need others, and confidently put those strengths together.

That may be one of the greatest strengths of a team itself.

References

• Edmondson, A. C. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383. Edmondson’s study examined 51 work teams and found psychological safety associated with learning behavior. 

• Hamlin, J. L. (2008). Team effectiveness: A validation study of Lencioni’s five functions of a team. Doctoral dissertation, University of La Verne. 

• Lencioni, P. (2002). The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. Jossey-Bass. Lencioni’s trust model is summarized in Northwestern University materials and the Five Behaviors resource. 

• Lencioni, P. (2012). The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business. Jossey-Bass.