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A #team anti-pattern that I frequently observe and always try to root out whenever possible: treating trust as a wall rather than a bridge; an individual expectation rather than a relationship.

“You should trust me; I shouldn’t have to communicate.”

“I thought you trusted my expertise.”

“We all trust each other to do our jobs.”

There’s a truth to it, because yes, of course we need autonomy and focus to do our jobs.

But the place this type of thinking leads is not a cohesive team that genuinely trusts each other in a relational way. It leads the opposite direction toward individuality and isolation and prevents team cohesion.

Endemic to very senior teams especially; it’s one of the reasons I love working with less experienced folks, the expectation is much less individual and they know they need each other to succeed.

Tough one.