Diagnosing Your Team’s Trust Gap: 3 Questions to Get Started

Is a Trust Gap slowing your team down? Use these three questions to uncover the issue and start building a stronger, more collaborative team.

How do you know if your team is struggling with a Trust Gap?
If trust issues exist within your team, the signs often become hard to ignore:

👉 Avoidance and withheld information: Team members may avoid one another or fail to share valuable insights, causing preventable mistakes or delays.

👉 Micro-management: A lack of trust leads to constant oversight, making team members feel like they aren’t trusted to handle their responsibilities.

👉 Over-documentation: When people feel the need to “cover their *@!” half the time, real productivity and collaboration take a backseat.

But diagnosing a Trust Gap isn’t one-size-fits-all. To effectively rebuild trust, it’s critical to identify the specific type of Trust Gap your team is facing.

Here are three diagnostic questions to uncover the root of the issue:

1. DO YOU HAVE AN ABILITY GAP?

This happens when team members question the quality or consistency of each other’s work. If the root of distrust lies in competence or skills, frustration can quickly escalate.

2. DO YOU HAVE A BENEVOLENCE GAP?

A Benevolence Gap arises when team members doubt that others have their best interests at heart. For example, a team member might feel others don’t care about their challenges or make decisions that negatively impact them.

3. DO YOU HAVE A INTEGRITY GAP?​

When team members don’t trust each other’s honesty or commitment to keeping promises, an Integrity Gap forms. This can erode team morale and damage relationships over time.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Once you’ve diagnosed the Trust Gap, the next step is creating an action plan to rebuild trust. Stay tuned for next week’s post, where I’ll dive into strategies for addressing each type of Trust Gap!

REFLECTION

Which of these Trust Gaps resonates most with your team? Recognizing it is the first step toward creating a more cohesive and effective environment.

Sign Up for the Negotiator’s Way Newsletter, Specials, Updates, Free Resources, and More.