Trust sits firmly at the foundation of every relationship. It is something that every successful leader needs to build and nurture over the course of an entire relationship, be it with friends and family, or with business partners, employees, or even the community as a whole.
But in the words of Warren Buffett, “it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” Betraying someone’s trust of you is a clear indication of a weakness in character, which, in turn, leads to fewer opportunities down the line.
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” —Warren Buffett
When you do the things that will increase your level of trust, your ability to build new and lasting relationships, seize new opportunities, and achieve success will also increase. Any politician can attest to the fact that when your trust levels are high, you will also become more effective in your policies and influential in your life.
When the community is aware of your high level of trustworthiness, you will be pleased to discover that even the most complex interactions and transactions will become easier.
How to Build and Maintain Trust?
Building trust is not as hard as it may seem at first glance. After all, almost everyone wants to trust others and have others believe them. The key to it is consistency. Below are several other factors that will increase your trust factor:
- Predictability
- High-quality work delivered on time
- Reliability through consistency
- Always communicate your commitments and stick to them
- Be willing to have your performance measured and analyzed
- Give trust, don’t only expect it from others
- Tell the truth
As mentioned before, trust builds and maintains strong relationships. And by keeping your trust levels as high as possible, you will also begin to experience peace and balance in your life. You will build self-respect, and you will also be better at resisting any negative influences that you may be exposed to.
Recommended: A Culture of Trust: Setting the Standards
Building Trust in the Workplace
When it comes to trust in the workplace, it’s important to remember that it is not something that will flow from the top down. Trust needs to be seeded and tended for at all levels of the organization.
As expected, your company culture will have an important role to play here. You will need to build one such culture that will encourage employees to share their feelings, express their concerns, bring solutions to the table, and not shy away from admitting error whenever it occurs. There is no shame in failing, but there is shame in trying to hide it, after all.
The best place to start in this endeavor is to develop an employee feedback program that centers itself on listening and understanding – no matter the unpleasantness of the circumstances.
As all of us know, it’s incredibly hard to work with a person that you don’t trust. For this reason, you will need to create bonds that are based on common ground, shared experiences, empathy, and mutual understanding. In other words, you will need to develop the abilities of patience and listening. You will need both if you ever want to understand the logic and feeling behind someone else’s stories, experiences, and points of view.
Recommended: Successful Leadership: Building and Maintaining Trust
Taking the time to know people
No matter your profession, if you take the necessary time to get to know the people around you, you will be well on your way in establishing a higher level of trust and bring on new opportunities upon yourself and your organization. If you want more information on the subject of trust and leadership, let’s connect: https://meetme.so/GregNichvalodoff or greg@inscapeconsulting.com
