Building Trust

If you intentionally focus on being and behaving in a trustworthy manner you will exponentially increase the quality of all your relationships.
Here are additional ideas (building on last week’s tip) about actions that build trust with others:

• – Be loyal. Maintain others confidences. Just because you can post something on Facebook doesn’t mean that you should. When someone hears you spilling another person’s secrets it makes him wonder whether you will share his secrets.
• – Admit mistakes and fix them. It’s important to admit when you are wrong. Don’t stop at saying you are sorry. A trustworthy person also makes an effort to right the wrong and fix their mistake.
• – Be consistent and congruent. What you mean (your intent) and your actions should match. When you say that you are on a diet and you eat dessert with your meal you are behaving inconsistently with your stated intent.
• – Set and manage expectations. There are explicit and implicit expectations. A lack of clarity regarding expectations can cause misunderstanding and break trust. When you agree to meet someone at a specific time and you are going to be late, what do you do? Call to let the other person know you will be late so you manage expectations.

Remember that trust comes from who you are and what you do. Be trustworthy, act trustworthy and you will become trustworthy.