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New York Women of Hospitality (NYCWOH) partnered with Rachel Vandenberg, The Travel Leader Coach, to host the first in the NYC WOH Workshop Series - Building Trust-Enabling Foundations for High Performing Teams. Hosted at the beautiful 11 Howard in Soho, the workshop aimed to provide tools to cultivate trust among teams and empower individuals. Vandenberg's personal anecdotes, including her experiences in hotel ownership, hotel management and navigating motherhood, provided valuable insights for attendees.
Rachel defined high performing teams and the traits they all have – frequent open communication, defined roles and expectations, among others. The conversation then shifted to “team trust” vs. “individual trust” wherein Rachel used examples from the group to identify how strong individual contributors do not necessarily create high performing teams. This was amplified by highlighting a recent Gallup survey that said only 50% of employees report they have clear expectations of their role – 50%!
Here are some key takeaways from the session:
High performing teams are not a product of chance. While there is no perfect recipe to build high performing teams, there are common characteristics and intentional actions that contribute. The session focused on how frequent and clear communication and clearly defined roles and expectations creates team trust and how this fosters an environment for teams to succeed.
Team trust brings many benefits. According to the PWC Trust in Business report, 93% of business executives believe it contributes to the bottom line. Without it, the quality of products and services is negatively impacted and in turn, profitability.
Clearly defining roles of individuals within a team is essential for building trust. To do this, leaders collaboratively create and regularly review specific duties and responsibilities with their team members. Leaders make them known not only to the individual but to every member of the team to avoid ambiguity and promote effective teamwork. Roles are different from job descriptions in that they are more fluid and related to changing organizational objectives.
To further strengthen trust, leaders clearly identify expectations. They collaboratively establish and regularly revisit specific measures of success for each team role. Team role KPI's are directly connected to larger organizational goals and team members identify how they work interdependently with other team roles to create synergistic outcomes.
Clear and transparent communication is critical for building high performing teams. It is through this channel that roles and expectations are made known. Communication is also essential for addressing conflict, providing feedback and promoting growth and development among team members further strengthening team outcomes.
The session concluded with small group breakout sessions allowed attendees to hone their communication skills – using common hotel KPIs as a framework for a mock strategy and alignment session.