Trust

Relationships are built on trust. They are sustained by trust. Are you trustworthy? Do you explicitly let others know that you want to build trust and that they can count on you to do what you say?
Trust comes from who you are and what you do. To grow in trust with others, the end never justifies the means. Trust will decrease and you will erode relationships when you achieve great results at the expense of others. In low-trust organizations leaders make decisions that achieve results but destroy their employees trust. This reduces productivity, performance and morale.
You can build trust by consistently telling the truth and showing respect. Additional ways to build trust with others:

• – Make and keep your agreements. This sounds simple but if you want to please everyone around you, there may be times that you agree to something to make someone else happy. Do not make an agreement unless you know you can keep it
• – Seek mutual benefit – want what’s best for everyone involved. Some people refer to this as finding a “win-win” outcome versus one side winning and the other side losing. When you are on conflict with another person ask yourself whether you want to be right or you want to maintain and build the relationship.

Any role you perform (leader, parent, spouse, friend, etc.) is a relationship. Trust is the glue of relationships. Relationships make the difference between success and failure, love or loss and a life well lived or a lonely life. Intentionally focus on being and behaving in a trustworthy manner and exponentially increase the quality of your relationships.