This is the third in a series of special columns on how both experienced and new leaders can build and maintain trust within their teams as the professional world slowly moves out of the Corona Crisis and Uncertainty towards a New Normal.

Every well-functioning society, religion, country, culture and institution has some form of rules to live and work by and to maintain the allegiance, trust and compliance of the people they incorporate.

At the societal level, these rules may be called traditions or mores. Then there might be religious beliefs and Dharma. Nations and political systems have laws and doctrines. Cultures? How about customs and practices? And institutions often draw up codes and credos.

What about teams, groups and projects? The last "Leading Rwanda” column on 16 July looked at the need for any team leader to articular clear roles and establish a team charter, which usually includes some specific "rules” on how to behave and collaborate.

Drawing on what is often established for regular meetings and training workshops, these are often called "groundrules”. This columnist much prefers the term "agreements”, which suggests that the whole team has been involved in this important process and has co-created something together that goes beyond "RTP”.

R is for Requirements, which are usually mandated on a legal or organizational level; T is for Traditions, which have been established but may or may not still be valid and necessary; and P is for Preferences, which can be highly subjective and open to interpretation and review.

When a team comes together to lay out some behavioural, collaborative agreements, a common starting point is: "Respect for Each Other.” This is a perfectly laudable but intangible goal for what people want to achieve. Similar to "Trust”, for example. What teams really need though are specific agreements for how they will actually show respect to each other.

So, a leader could then throw back some of the following questions to the group:

"What does respect really look like for you and this team?”

"What is disrespectful?”

"What could each person do to demonstrate respect for others?”

"How will you recognize respect when it comes from others?”

"How do you make sure that it is consistently enforced and re-inforced?”

Each team is different but a good place to start showing Respect is through a simple pledge of "Punctuality”, such as starting and ending meetings on time or getting work done before deadlines come due.

Another agreement that helps to build Respect (and Trust) is around "Confidentiality”: having a very clear idea of what can be shared with whom at what time and under what circumstances. This will really help leaders if they have to keep an externally sourced secret, such as an impending merger that could affect the whole project. Or if they have to keep an internally sourced confidence, such as a key team member’s imminent absence to look after a sick family member.

Similar to Respect, team members will often mention the need for clear, concise and consistent "Communication”. That is a good start and yet it is still not specific enough. Some more tangible agreements in this area might be:

-          Use a wide variety of communication modes - in-person, phone, email, text, etc. (so that others that others have the best chance to hear you and understand you)

-          Constantly check for understanding (by asking others for acknowledgement, paraphrasing, clarifying questions, etc. as a message sent is very often not the one that is received)

-          Send messages whenever you want but only expect a response during commonly agreed, regular working hours (so that team members can enjoy time with their families and not feel the need to be constantly checking their phones)

-          A project manager at a leading NGO in Kigali says that teams must practice and promote "true listening” to each other (there is a reason that humans only have one mouth and two ears)

-          Sade Rwamasirabo at the University of Global Health Equity goes one stage further. She calls on team leaders (and members) to always have "a helping ear to whoever because you never really know what struggles someone has.” 

Clearly, this is just a start and through constant review and a form of iterative process, leaders and their teams will adapt and add to such agreements to aid clarity, well-being, productivity and performance for everyone.

The views expressed in this column are entirely those of the writer who can be reached at jeremy@jeremysolomons.com