How a Team Credo Builds Trust and Alignment

In this solo mini-episode, host Russel Lolacher shares a leadership tool that helped him retain a team for more than a decade: the team credo. Drawing from his own experience, Russel explains how a short, clear set of guiding principles can improve communication, build trust, and align your team around what matters most. You’ll also get seven practical steps to create a credo that inspires and strengthens workplace culture.

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Transcript

Welcome back to Relationships At Work – A leadership podcast helping you build workplace connection, improve culture, and avoid blind spots. I’m your host Russel Lolacher

I’m a communications and leadership nerd with a couple of decades of experience and a heap of curiosity on how we can make the workplace better.

This mini-episode is a quick and valuable bit of information to help your mindset for the week ahead.

Inspired by our R@W Note Newsletter, I’m passing on to you…

Why Leaders Should Create Credos

Communication. Communication. Communication. It's the foundation of any great leader. And truthfully, we could be doing it more intentionally and effectively.

Our teams are busy. They’re juggling multiple priorities. And, surprise surprise, they’re not just thinking about work. They have a lot on their minds. So to get through to them, cut through that noise, and connect with them, it’s work. this is simply the reality of leading a team.

So, we need to communicate—clearly, concisely, understandably, and with relevance—and we have to take the time to learn how our messages are understood so we can adjust them for maximum impact and resonance. This is  one of the most powerful things we can do.

To lead is to connect, and leaders can't connect if they can't communicate.

So today I’m going to share a communication tool… a connection tool, that’s really worked for me.

One of the most helpful things I’ve ever created and communicated was a credo for my team. A credo is a statement of the beliefs or aims which guide someone's actions.

So I created a short list of principles about our work - what we believed in, what we valued, and what we practiced. It was six or so bullet points that kept us on track in providing value, being successful, and staying focused.

Here were a couple:

• We all own our brand.
• Be human, and a good one.
• Every word and action is about building trust.

And we posted it on the wall for all to see—both as a declaration and a commitment to ourselves and for anyone who worked with us.

For our team, it provided clarity and alignment. It helped define our team identity, improved decision-making by serving as a guardrail, motivated us, and became a point of pride.

For those we worked with, it created transparency, alignment and consistency with the broader mission and vision. It made collaboration easier because people understood how we worked. It reinforced company culture, built trust, and modeled a healthy workplace for others.

A credo is as much for ourselves as it is for everyone around us. It’s like a flag that we use to communicate what we believe in while telling our team’s story to anyone interacting with us.

So, how do we create a credo that matters - to our team, our purpose and our work environment?

A team credo isn't just a list of words, it's a guiding philosophy that personally defines you as a team. To create a credo that matters, we went through a few steps:

1. Start with Your Purpose- Why does our team exist? What impact and value do we want to have? This isn't about operations, this is about capturing the heart of our work and what we're striving for. It should also support the organizations larger mission and vision. No going rogue here.
2. Identify the Team Core Values- This is about shaping your team identity and decision making. Pick 3-5 and make them meaningful (not generic or corporate talk)
3. Get Team Input- Involve the team through a survey or a workshop (I preferred the workshop). Ask questions like "what behaviours make this team great? What do we want to be known for?" They need to be part of the process - if they're not involved, they won't feel ownership of it.
4. Define Guiding Behaviours - It's time to get actionable. Take those values and make them behaviours that guide the team every day. For example, "trust" was our value but our behaviour was "Every word and action is about building trust" to give it context and intention.
5. Keep it Concise & Inspiring- the best credos are short, memorable and impactful. Create 3-6 statements and avoid that corporate jargon that really doesn't mean anything to anyone.
6. Make it Visible and Live It- Make a poster and put it on a wall. Put it in your email signature. Make journals and notepads. Mention it at meetings. Have a recognition program around it. LIVE it.
7. Revisit & Evolve- nothing is ever in stone so as you grow as a team, check back on your credo and adjust accordingly. As a team.

A credo is a reflection of who you are. The most meaningful ones are the most personal. It’s about planting a flag in the sand and saying, “This is us. How can we help you?”

And remember—it shouldn’t separate you from others in the organization. Instead, it should demonstrate how you contribute and what it’s like to work with you.

It’s about inspiration, not separation. Now I encourage you to go, credo.