Trust-based Relationships Fuel Productive Teams
Relationships that Support High-Performing Teams
The way that relationships are formed impacts how teams function. These foundational elements of relationship shape how people establish rapport and mutual positive regard, which are the building blocks of trust, cooperation, and respect. The Anchor Relationships™ framework activates a mutual desire to help each other grow and thrive, fostering what researchers call "high-quality connections." These meaningful connections create a shared sense of community that enhances productivity, collaboration, and communication¹.
A Pathway for Forging Trust
While leaders value trust, its development often seems elusive. Trust begins at the interpersonal level before expanding to networks. Through meaningful engagement, team members gain deeper self-awareness and understanding of others' wellbeing. These insights enable a conscious shift in how people relate to each other.
When people are motivated to build and maintain genuine, empathetic relationships, they are more likely to engage in ethical behaviors that prioritize the wellbeing of others².
Creating Community for Teams, Partnerships, and Networks
The Anchor Relationships framework builds positive connections among team members and across affiliated networks and partnerships. Research shows that these connections cultivate community by fostering inclusion, a felt sense of being important to others, experienced mutual benefit, and shared emotions¹.
THE ANCHOR RELATIONSHIPS TEAM WORKSHOP
Anchor Relationships Workshop for Teams begins with an exploration of how relationships impact individual growth. Participants then use structured guidance to understand what drives each other's thriving at work. Through personalized Action Plans, they commit to strengthening specific relationships, making mutual agreements to bring their best selves forward. Finally, Anchors embrace accountability—supporting while challenging each other—creating a healthy tension that guides behavior toward ethical, honest, and generative actions that benefit the entire team.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
How people approach relationships—whether driven by self-interest or mutual care—shapes their moral and ethical choices, particularly in how they cooperate with and show fairness to others².
People learn a lot about themselves when they form these intentional relationships, which illuminate the elements of thriving for each person.
Careful reflection on how people want to be perceived reveals aspects of their personality that they want to illuminate and strengthen in the workplace—thus enabling a conscious shift in behavior and communication.
How positive relationships increase motivation at work while also improving physical and psychological wellbeing³.
How to connect meaningfully with people at work.
WHY YOU’LL WANT TO LEARN IT
Unlike assessment tools that give people labels or put them in boxes, the Anchor Relationships tool opens you up to see each person's potential -- and to realize your own potential.
If we’re not careful, workplace norms can reduce relationships to transactional connections in order to get work done quickly. But these superficial connections don’t support each person’s self-esteem and they don’t provide a source of positive emotions, which are central to wellbeing.
Gaining more awareness of relationships enables each person to make conscious choices about how they want to show up—and how they want to be perceived.
Teams that foster a sense of community are more productive, because they communicate and collaborate more effectively¹.
HOW IT HELPS YOU
The Anchor Relationships framework gives you a vocabulary for talking about what matters to you — so that you can effectively self-advocate in each work relationship.
Your physical and mental health improve when you forge positive relationships at work.
This framework enables each member of a team to rise to their most honest and generative self—transforming work into a space for both achievement and personal growth.
Working with people who want to see you flourish is rewarding, energizing, and meaningful.
“Happiness is only real when shared.”
— Chris McCandless by way of Jon Krakauer in "Into the Wild"
POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS IMPROVE OUR HEALTH
Researchers find that when poor relationships exist in the workplace, workers’ physical and mental health erode during the week but then improve significantly on the weekends. They refer to this phenomenon as Weekend Effect, and their research shows that in work environments where people experience higher levels of relatedness and autonomy (aspects of the Anchor Relationships framework), incidence of Weekend Effect is less noticeable⁴.
Positive relationships also increase motivation at work. Researchers find that motivationally supportive work environments increase productivity, open collaboration, and a stronger sense of satisfaction at work.
References
Blatt, Ruth and Camden, Carl. “Positive Relationships and Cultivating Community.” Exploring Positive Relationships at Work, edited by Jane E. Dutton and Belle Rose Ragins, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2007, pp. 243-64.
Clark, M. S., & Mills, J. (1993). The difference between communal and exchange relationships: What it is and is not. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19(6), 684–691.
Deci, Edward L., and R. M. Ryan. “Autonomy and Need Satisfaction in Close Relationships: Relationships Motivation Theory.” Human Motivation and Interpersonal Relationships, edited by N. Weinstein, Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg, 2014, pp. 56-57.
Ryan, Richard, Bernstein, Jessey, and Brown, Kirk. “Weekends, work, and wellbeing: Psychological need satisfactions and day of the week effects on mood, vitality, and physical symptoms.” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, vol. 29, no.1, 2010, pp. 95-122. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2010.29.1.95
