101: Building trust
Getting clients, customers or employees to trust your experience, product and management acumen takes time and effort. But it's an investment in your future, the future of your company and business profits. As there is no quick fix or shortcut to building up trust with someone, it's helpful to keep some trust-building factors in mind. Here are three ways to help make others see you're reliable, with good things to offer:
Under commit, then over-deliver. This concept is cited by Martin Zwilling at Forbes.com, as a lesson in the book “Business Secrets of Trappist Monks,” by August Turak. Many entrepreneurs, he said, for example, are so anxious to be respected in their fields that they'll promise more than they can deliver, yet the quickest way to lose respect is to fail to keep commitments. “If you make people hound you about a commitment,” and fall behind, he added, “you have already lost half of your credibility.”
Show respect. Respect should be shown not only for others, but also to yourself. When you deal with others as if they were your equal, be sure you're not going to the other extreme and belittling yourself, reads an article by Harvy Simkovits at BusinessWisdom.com. He advises “always talking to and dealing with others as equals and never as if they were lesser than or greater than you.”
Involve people in decisions that affect them. This earns trust and makes people more likely to support your decision, especially in the case of employees, according to a FastCompany.com article by Andy Atkins. “If you've already made the decision, and you're not open to changing your mind,” he writes, “don't go through the motions of bringing people into the process. You won't get buy-in.”
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