Effective coaches are essentially effective leaders. Both require their team’s trust. Trust is a foundational need for all team members.

Building and maintaining trust on a winning team is easy. Athletes and coaches feel good, relationships are positive and self-esteem is high. There is a sense of confidence and belief. Typically, players trust their coaches more because the team are seeing the benefits of the coaching.

But what about a losing team? Morale, high spirits and positive attitudes are hard to maintain. Players begin to doubt selections, coaching approaches and chosen tactics and strategies. Trust in the coaching staff begin to diminish.

Without trust in the coaches, the team cannot perform to its potential.

How do coaches rebuild trust?

1.     Helping players cooperate.

Resolving any conflicts between players and/or players and coaches.

Give honest regular feedback. This is an area typically lacking in any team I have worked with.

Check in with players about their concerns, hopes, frustrations. 

Ask for feedback about your coaching and be prepared to shift some of your approaches.

2.     Show that you are an expert. 

Players will trust you if they believe you have technical knowledge and that you make good decisions.

This may mean you have to communicate why certain players are getting game time, or why you are making particular strategic calls. 

3.     Be consistent.

Do what you say you will do.

You must follow through on commitments and keep any promises you make.

These three behaviors build positive relationships and are required to be a trusted coach. You don’t need to master them, but you do need to be good at them.

Source: The 3 Elements of Trust by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman