7 Strategies for Building Trust in Working Relationships: Survey and Reflect on Your Relationship-Building Skills
Amy Zilk, principal of Roosevelt Middle School in Vista Unified School District, understands that stepping into a new leadership role brings both challenges and rewards. One of the most important and immediate priorities for any school leader is building strong, trusting relationships with staff. Amy recently shared how she has approached this work, and continues to nurture meaningful connections with her team at Roosevelt Middle School.
OBJECTIVES
- Understand why trust is essential to school culture.
- Practice transparency by sharing results and next steps.
As Amy would tell you, relationship building is not something you can mark as “done.” It is a commitment that is daily, deliberate, and always evolving. Her approach aligns with seven key strategies that any school leader can use to foster deeper trust and stronger collaboration with staff.
Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.
-Stephen Covey
Put These Strategies Into Practice With a Staff Survey
One of the most effective ways to begin building or strengthening trust is to ask your staff how they experience it. To support this work, we have created a Google form, and pdf aligned to the seven strategies outlined above. The survey allows staff to share their perspectives on how well these practices are showing up in your school, and it can help identify both strengths to celebrate and areas for growth.
The provided Google Form and .pdf (below) resources have the same questions and are the same survey; we are providing different formats to best suit your needs. The Google Form will direct you to create your own copy of the survey that you can then edit to meet your school’s needs.
Be sure to practice transparency by following up with the results, your gratitude and insights, and your next steps with your staff.
Trust Is the Foundation of Culture
Amy’s experience reflects what many principals already know: trust is the foundation of a healthy school culture. It affects how teams collaborate, how students experience learning, and how change takes root.
As you reflect on your own leadership, consider which of these strategies you already use and where you might grow. Trust is not a finish line. It is a practice that is built day by day, relationship by relationship.
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This work by Inflexion is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
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