Two Types of Trust on Teams

Trust makes a massive difference on the performance of teams. And that fact has been found in research on teamwork over and over. For example, a 2011 study of nearly 200 teams from the United States and Hong Kong, found that when trust went up, so did performance. In a way, trust on a team acts as a social lubricant. When teams trust each other, the social frictions are reduced, which makes it easier to collaborate and easier to share one’s true perspective on any challenges the team faces.

Without trust, people hold back their brilliance. They don’t share their unique perspectives and insights. With trust, those hesitations disappear and ideas and information flow freely. Teams with trust explore more possibilities than teams without trust. And teams with trust willingly put forward their ideas and aid to others on the team. Trust even makes working on a team more enjoyable. But building trust on a team can be mysterious for many leaders.

One overlooked reason is that there isn’t just one form of trust that matters on a team: there’s two. In the 2011 study mentioned above, researchers John Schaubroeck, Simon Lam, and Ann Chunyan Peng distinguished two types of trust: cognition-based trust and affect-based trust. And it’s worth examining each in turn before considering how to build trust on a team.

0:00 Introduction
1:44 Cognition-Based Trust
5:42 Affect-Based Trust
9:00 Conclusion

Both forms of trust are important, but you’re probably wondering if the study examined differences between cognition-based and affect-based trust. And indeed, it did. While cognition-based trust increased performance, affect-based trust increased it significantly more. And that’s a lesson worth remembering. Because many team leaders focus on the project and what it takes to help people work better. So they build cognition-based trust. But focusing on the people, and helping them build affect-based trust, is what helps people do their best work ever.

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One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David Burkus’ forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are helping leaders and teams do their best work ever.

He is the best-selling author of four books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, USAToday, Fast Company, the Financial Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS This Morning. Since 2017, Burkus has been ranked as one of the world’s top business thought leaders by Thinkers50. As a sought-after international speaker, his TED Talk has been viewed over 2 million times. He’s worked with leaders from organizations across all industries including Google, Stryker, Fidelity, Viacom, and even the US Naval Academy.

A former business school professor, Burkus holds a master’s degree in organizational psychology from the University of Oklahoma, and a doctorate in strategic leadership from Regent University.

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