A functional team must make the collective results of the group more important to each individual than individual members' goals.

Members of trusting teams accept questions and input about their areas or responsibility, appreciate and tap into one another's skills and experiences, and look forward to meetings and other opportunities to work as a group.

Achieving vulnerability-based trust (where team members have overcome their need for invulnerability) is difficult because in the course of career advancement and education, most successful people learn to be competitive with their peers, and protective of their reputations. It is a challenge for them to turn those instincts off for the good of the team, but that is exactly what is required.

As difficult as it is to build a team, it is not complicated. In fact, keeping it simple is critical, whether you run the executive staff at a multi-national company, a small department within a larger organization, or even if you are merely a member of a team that needs improvement.

Like a good marriage, trust on a team is never complete; it must be maintained over time.

Trust is the foundation of real teamwork (there is nothing touchy-feely about this).

As a leader, you're probably not doing a good job unless your employees can do a good impression of you when you're not around.