If you are interested in
growing your career, then I bet that you are interested in building trust with
people, especially at your workplace. Trust is not a matter of emotions; it is
not given away out of kindness or as charity. Trust is earned and built. It is
a product of character and behavior. Trust is everything; everything is trust.
Relationships, businesses, and every other thing are built on trust. The
certificates issued by educational institutions say that that the holder should
be trusted to have been trained at the institution, in a particular area, for a
stated period of time and also shows how they have rated the performance of the
holder. When a cheque is issued to a person, the issuer is telling the
financial institution to trust the person that has been issued the cheque, and
give him the stated amount of money on the cheque.
It is not a really simple
thing to build trust, especially in a business environment. People find it
difficult to trust others for some reasons. Stephen Covey and Greg Link highlighted
some in their book- Smart Trust:
·
Trust is risky.
The cost of being wrong about someone is expensive. People have learnt this from
past experiences and even current happenings.
·
The rule of the game
these days does not allow people to trust. People and things are not
really as they appear or seem. Packaging and branding have affected originality.
Before the World War I, people focused on the originality of their person,
organizations, products and services. After the war, the attention shifted to
packaging and developing techniques in order to win friends, do better in
business, and in other areas of life.
·
There are misleading
schools of thought about trust. Some years ago, I was reading an
article by a supposed world expert on trust-based relationships and sales, and I
just said to myself, “if people follow what this man has written, they will
definitely find it difficult to trust anyone, even the Creator”. The effect of
not trusting people does not always take long to begin to manifest.
·
Misleading body
languages. No matter what you say, people will always believe your
body language more. For example, you can’t say you trust your employee or
subordinate at the office, and keep hovering around the person when you give
the person a task. Also, when your body language says you are over ambitious,
self-centered or a politician, it does not matter what you say or what your
intentions are, you cannot be trusted.
There are so many more
challenges with trust at the workplace. But trust is important to business
growth, career building, and everything. Warren Buffett once said that trust is
like air we breathe in- when it is present, nobody really notices; when it is
absent, everybody notices.
In building the trust of
people in your workplace, the following are important:
1. Develop a strong character: There are rules that naturally govern human effectiveness, knowing and living by these rules are termed as having character. There are a very few people who possess strong character, but these people are loved, and trusted by others. These set of people are always calm, courageous, empathic, confident, polite and respectful. Even to your subordinates or employees you don’t need to show hierarchy, treat them as equally important people for the organization’s growth.
2. Learn and practice your workplace ethics and policies: I am separating this from developing a strong character because I realize that some people, who ordinarily lack character, can learn workplace ethics, practice them and grow their career. What happens is, they become successful career people and other aspects of their lives are not as fantastic.
Companies have their policies. It is best you learn your company’s policies. This way you remain in the good books of the management and other members of the entire ecosystem of your workplace. A friend of mine that works in one of the big 5s in consulting shared with me that it is against their company’s policy for any member of staff to be found on a motor cycle on the high way. The simple thing to do is to keep to the rule.
3 Be accountable: Being accountable is for your own success. It is a skill-set that anyone can learn. Be accountable to yourself and everyone else in your workplace. If your actions or inactions as a superior have affected someone that works under you, the person needs to know, needs to be apologized to. He or she deserves an explanation.
4 Create personal rules and hedges: People trust people with personal rules and hedges more. It is usually not enough to create personal rules and hedges, it is important to let people know your rules and hedges. This will not only keep them from treading on your rules but you also earn their trust and respect.
5 Be intentional about building trust: There is a difference between having good intentions and being intentional. People cannot see good intentions but being intentional involves doing the right things you need to do to be trusted. When there is a controversial situation, let your intentions be known, and be sincere about it. Honor your promises. Be consistent. Volunteer useful information. Keep secrets. Show commitment to your job and relationships with people at your workplace.
6. Associate and connect with people: People don’t easily trust people who keep to themselves. In many situations, the quietest is usually the suspect if anything goes wrong.
7. Be competent on your job: If you are good on your job, people will tend to trust you more.
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