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People Don't Leave Companies, They Leave Teams

Writer's picture: Jade LeeJade Lee

Updated: Jun 28, 2022

A common adage is that people do not leave companies, they leave managers. While that may be true, in my experience, this is a simplification of an often-complex issue. Ultimately, it is up to the manager to address any problems within the team. However, often, they are unable to improve the situation for a plethora of reasons not limited to employment legislation and company politics. It is easy to “Blame the Manager” in these circumstances, however, in reality, all team members are responsible for resolving team issues.


In the enigmatic words of Billy Joel, “It’s a matter of trust”. If you trust the people that you work with, you can endure whatever the company throws at you. Trust is an aspect of the relationship, which is earned through hard work and can be lost very easily. People approach trust in different ways in a relationship; some start the relationship with the expectation that you are trustworthy until proven otherwise and others can seemingly take years before they trust you. In the workplace, we need to temper our approach for the different styles, but ultimately, if we are looking to work in a collaborative productive work environment, it is everyone’s responsibility to build a reputation as a trustworthy team member.


When coaching employees who are clearly disgruntled with their employment, I will ask the question, “Why are you still here?” The answer is often some version of, ”I love my team,” or, “I don’t want to let my colleagues down”. This is only the response when there is a strong sense of trust in the team. If that trust were not there, the employees would not endure the perceived day-to-day drudgery of their work. It is important that there is trust across the team. You do not have to like everyone but you do need to trust them, or the positive culture of the team breaks down . This is why the act of “trust falling” is often done in team building days. Trusting people to do their jobs and back you up when required is imperative to creating a strong team culture and, in turn, employee engagement. I trust my team has my back and I have theirs. As a team member, there are a few simple things that you can do to gain and maintain trust in your team:

  1. Do what you say you are going to do;

  2. Genuinely support your teammates without thought of personal gain;

  3. Do not gossip - if you gossip about anyone, you could gossip about everyone.

It is interesting that a great team culture can flourish in the presence of a less than ideal leader as long as the employees trust each other and are connect on a personal level. Employee happiness was found to be much more closely correlated to the connections employees shared with their co-workers rather than those they shared with their direct supervisors by 23%, according to research reported in the 5 Languages of Love in the Workplace.


Building strong connections and trust within teams is the first priority. Trust is the building block of all relationships and we do well to put it high on our to do list every day.

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