Trust is one of the most integral elements of any sustainable human interaction or relationship. Without trust, one cannot be one’s true self and thereby not perform at one’s best. In the event industry, teams work in cohesion to create mind-blowing events. All of this is possible when competent event directors and company leaders ace their leadership game and bring the team together. Building team trust is imperative to achieving maximum potential from team members. 

So, how to build trust within teams? Event managers have to set the organization’s core work values in motion. These values should be rooted in transparency, clear communication, and absolute reliability. Let’s explore some key strategies for building trust within event teams to create the best B2B events in the industry.

Benefits of Building Trust Within Event Teams

A high-trust team translates to a highly reliable event team. It is practically impossible to imagine a B2B event planning team functioning without healthy reliability and trust. When it comes to event organizing it’s never a one-man show, the event manager has to have the team united and make the most of their strengths and capabilities. Some of the core benefits of building trust within your event management team are as follows:

1. Effective Collaboration

In an event team, everyone has different skill sets which are required to perform different duties for faster completion of tasks and sub-tasks. An event team with high levels of trust can collaborate on tasks faster as everyone trusts each other and is driven to put in their best efforts to make their B2B event successful. They feel free to express their thoughts and ideas and are in a better position to deal with opposing viewpoints of criticism. Trustworthiness within a team is like a backbone for effective communication and collaboration.

2. High Performance

According to a study published in the Trust Outlook, 85% of people believe that trust is important for a high-performing team and is the foundation for a strong and cohesive team. In an article published in the Harvard Business Review, author Paul J. Zak said that employees in organizations with high trust levels are more productive, have more energy at work, collaborate better with their colleagues, and stay with their employers longer than people working at low-trust companies. 

For a teammate, the ability to trust their peers and their manager enables them to be themselves. It makes them want to perform their best as their ability to trust one another builds a strong sense of purpose in them,  thereby making them passionate about their tasks.

A lot of stress within teams is associated with communication problems. As an event manager, when you figure out how to build trust within teams, you’ll see that trust forms the basis for clear communication. It creates a strong sense of psychological safety where employees thrive and reach their maximum potential. With less stress and higher levels of collaboration, teams deliver high performance.

3. Enhanced Creativity And Decision-making

The essence of creativity lies in one’s ability to be one’s truest self without the fear of rejection or judgment. A high-trust environment fosters a culture of openness, which fosters creativity and growth opportunities.

Event management is a field where professionals must develop innovative and novel ways to increase attendee engagement and participation. High levels of trust enable event teams to deliver their creative best to organize events that can create history. 

Creativity and quick decision-making come in handy while handling events. The ability to trust and rely on each other enables teams to be efficient problem solvers and handle any challenges that might arise.

4. Lower Stress Levels

According to an article published in the Harvard Business Review, “Compared with people in low-trust companies, people at high-trust companies report 74% less stress.” The ability to trust peers magically erases potential causes of stress. Imagine having to think ten times before saying something at work. 

A work environment like that can hardly be helpful for employee and team growth. When employees trust their team members and their manager, they feel at ease. There is a sense of belonging and oneness, which fosters high team performance with relatively lower stress levels.

5. Increased Employee Retention

In a work environment where employees are trusted and valued for their contributions, the likelihood of employee turnover is reduced. High-trust event organizations have been reported to have lower levels of employee turnover. All of the above factors such as effective collaboration, lower levels of stress, enhanced creativity, and decision making are all responsible for increased workforce retention. When employees feel a sense of belonging and trust and their core needs for growth and appreciation are met they experience high levels of job satisfaction.

6. Better Conflict Resolution

In an environment where open and free communication is encouraged, employees will seldom have disagreements. However, as event managers, your goal is not to prevent differences of opinion or conflict but rather to have the tools and means to manage your team effectively.

In high-trust organizations, employees do not hide their problems and challenges. They openly discuss what bothers them, allowing managers to have a clear picture of what needs to be done.

For example, when your vendor manager and finance manager openly disagree on the budget for recreational activities, you have relevant information from both of them to make the final decision. Within the given budget, you will find ways to fulfill the client’s demands while not compromising on the event attendee’s satisfaction. 

Conflict resolution is possible only when teammates feel psychologically safe and free to express themselves. A high-trust organization enables the same. Raam Roch-Hai, a work culture evangelist striving to bring mindfulness to work, says that high-trust organizations give him the confidence to take calculated risks that can result in path-breaking innovations. 

How to Build Trust within Teams

Be it interpersonal relationships or a work environment, trust is the key element that drives success. As an event manager the more you trust your team, the more they trust you and this form of mutual trust is crucial in putting up high-scale B2B events. Trust is integral even for virtual teams as the lack of physical presence can bring about a disconnect between team members. Trust acts like a glue between team members and managers in a virtual setup. It helps build healthy team dynamics. So, how to build trust within teams? Here are a few ways to go about it:

1. Acknowledge Excellence

When a team member achieves a milestone, make sure to recognize their effort publicly. Laud them for how they tackled the challenges to achieving their goal and inspire other team members to follow suit. Paul Zak, the author of the article on the Neuroscience of Trust, stresses the impact of public recognition of team members as it gives top performers a forum to share their best practices for others to learn.

 As an event manager, when you acknowledge the efforts of your team , you encourage them to consistently meet their goals. This also gives you a reason to celebrate the small and big wins of your team and foster a culture of performance and enthusiasm within the organization. For example, when your creative theme conceptualizer gets the theme and mood board approved by the client, make it a point to have a small celebration with the creative team to keep them motivated. A small celebration could be during hi-tea when you acknowledge the efforts your creative team and treat the team to pizza or anything they would like to have.

2. Introduce Goals As Challenges To Be Overcome

The way you communicate the nature of tasks can strongly impact how they perceive them. When you tell your team that the task at hand is challenging yet achievable, you directly intensify their focus and drive toward achieving their goals. 

For example, let’s say your client has rejected all your event venue suggestions for the third time, it is up to you to make your team feel demotivated or get them all charged up to try again and match the needs of the client to get the event theme approved. Your reaction to the situation will make an impact on how the team will respond to the challenge at hand.

Certain challenges can inspire the team to work collectively. The idea is to not set goals that are too easy but rather have an element of challenge in them to increase the focus and drive off your team members.

3. Avoid Spoon-feeding Your Team Members

Irrespective of how ambitious you may be as an event team manager, you have to first develop the ability to trust your own team members. Only when you trust them can you expect to foster an environment of high trust within your team. 

Refrain from micromanaging your teammates. Set goals and give them clear directions to achieve them. However, allow them to do their job their way. This basic level of freedom shows that you trust your team. It also enables team members to discover new and innovative ways of doing their work, boosting their confidence and making them feel good about themselves. You can provide them with your insights while tracking their progress. However, allow them to arrive at the goal in their own way.

What you can do is communicate the event plan and sub-tasks to your team and then ask them how they would like to go about doing them. Discuss with the team and brainstorm on what can and cannot be done. Hear their opinions and give them the space to do their tasks. This show of trust from your end will encourage them to go out of their way to do their work and truly enjoy being a part of the team thereby boosting employee morale.

4. Be Vulnerable

No doubt, being an event team manager or director is a position of power and responsibility. However, that should not stop you from being your true, authentic self to your team. You don’t have to come across as a perfectionist to your team. In fact, openly expressing your flaws and weaknesses can encourage your team members to be open about their shortcomings without fear of judgment. 

This can enable you and your team to better understand and support one another. One team member’s flaw could be another person’s strength. Having information about this upfront can put you in a better position to assign and manage tasks.

Being vulnerable goes a long way in building high levels of trust within your team. It builds credibility and encourages collaboration, open communication, and the ability to work together to solve problems. For example, when you are handling too many events at one time and feel overwhelmed, it can be a good thing to open up about it and blow some steam in front of your team members. Understanding what you’re going through will only strengthen your bond with your team.

5. Organize Team-Building Activities

It is understandable that as an event organization, you seldom get time to conduct activities for the team. However, to build a culture of trust and open communication, it is important to have icebreakers and team-building activities. These activities will obviously give the team members a much-needed break from their day-to-day work and also encourage them to be more communicative with their peers.

Team-building activities are usually fun and enable team members to see their peers in a different light. As they showcase their fun side during these activities, you get to have a better understanding of every team member, thereby increasing trust within the team.

It is understandable that an event organization works round the clock to make their events a rand success. But reserving 45-minutes on every Friday for a fun hour of charades or Pictionary can give your team-members the break they deserve and need.

6. Have Consistent Communication

Communication is different from consistent communication. Effective team management demands that you provide your input and track the team’s consistent progress from time to time. This reduces any uncertainty your team members may face regarding their work. Consistent communication will ensure that every team member is on the same page about their micro and macro goals. 

Even on the days before the event it is important to stay on top of your game have proper contingency plans in place. In fact Martyna Kaczmarek, Senior Conference Producer, Clarion Events, says that it is important to make a contingency plan before the show of any emergencies so they can be addressed immediately if any unexpected situations happen, maintain calm and focus on the solutions and identify who’s help you need. This is achievable only when you have a culture of consistent communication and trust within your team.

Moreover, when you, as a team manager, choose to communicate consistently, you are showing up to your team consistently. This sets a precedent for high levels of trust within your team. 

As per a 2015 study, 2.5 million manager-led teams across 195 countries discovered that employee engagement improved when team managers held daily team meetings and check-ins.

7. Foster Personal and Professional Growth

Maslow’s pyramid of needs indicates the importance of self-actualization. Everyone wants to grow professionally as well as personally to lead a more fulfilling life. So, while you focus on developing your new work skills for your team members don’t forget to enquire about their personal development.

Personal goals help one lead a more balanced life. Conduct individual discussions with team members on how they can successfully integrate their work and personal lives to achieve balance and good mental health.

As a lead event manager, you want to ensure that your teammates are highly evolved by the time they are ready to take up their next job. Conducting skill-based workshops like crisis management, project management, design thinking, and experiential event creation can help them with their professional development, and having timely check-ins about how they’re managing their personal and professional lives can help them feel more connected to the organization thereby building high levels of trust.

8. Focus on Relationship-Building

Show your team members that you care about them and do it genuinely. Try to build a rapport with each one by getting to know them. Enquire about their well-being from time to time and stay connected with them at a personal level.

As an event manager, you must understand that your team spends most of their waking hours at work. It is, therefore, imperative that you make them feel a sense of belonging. Just like they have families back home, their team is their work family. According to a study conducted by Google, team managers who expressed interest in and concern for team members outperformed others in their performance.

9. Admit When You’re Wrong

As a leader, admitting when you’re wrong does take guts. But when it comes to work all that matters is the success of your team. When you openly admit your mistakes, it inspires others to do the same. It generates a sense of trust and openness among the team members. This level of integrity will inspire others to follow suit.

They will begin to respect you more for owning up to your mistakes. Your authenticity will form the foundation of your relationship with your teammates. Moreover, it encourages a growth mindset within the team.

Let’s say in a stressful situation you falsely accused your operational manager for not getting the stalls up on time at a tradeshow when the real culprit was the vendor, owning up to your mistake and apologizing to your operational manager will help them trust you. Knowing that their superior is someone who understands them will make them feel supported and thereby add to their sense of psychological safety.

10. Show Transparency

Being transparent in an organization means making information accessible to employees across hierarchical levels. The idea is to have open communication, a strong sense of accountability, and a clear explanation of the decision-making process to employees, helping them foster trust and inclusivity.

When all pertinent information is readily available, it becomes easier to trust one another. Weekly town halls, and being open to sharing pertinent company information can all help in creating a culture of transparency in your event organization.

Different organizations have different boundaries when it comes to being transparent with their employees. As an event manager, you can choose to be transparent about the metric that you would use for your team to review them and give them appraisals.

11. Meet with Individual Team Members

As an event manager, taking the time to meet individually with each team member is a powerful way to build trust and strengthen relationships within your team. These one-on-one interactions provide a platform to connect on a deeper level, beyond the typical professional exchanges that occur during team meetings. 

By actively listening and engaging in open dialogue, you can learn about each team member’s skills, talents, motivations, career aspirations, and even personal interests, all of which can help you tailor your management approach to support their growth and well-being.

12. Take Feedback and Implement it

High-trust organizations don’t just take feedback from their employees but also make it a point to implement it as well. This gives employees a sense of being recognized and taken seriously. When employees feel valued their tendency to trust the organization increases. They start developing the habit of openly expressing their views and opinions to their peers and to their managers. Thereby developing high levels of trust within the team.

Key Takeaway

Building trust within event teams is essential for creating a cohesive, collaborative, and high-performing work environment crucial for the successful execution of events. Trust is the foundation that enables open communication, encourages creativity, and fosters accountability among team members. As an event manager, you play a pivotal role in cultivating this trust through transparent leadership, personalized engagement, and consistent support. 

By promoting a culture of openness, recognizing achievements, and addressing challenges collectively, you empower your team to work together effectively, adapt to changing situations, and ultimately deliver outstanding event experiences. Investing in building trust within your event team not only enhances team dynamics but also drives long-term success and growth for the organization.