Tuesday
Nov022010
Practical advice on building trust
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 7:50AM
Trust is what makes business work. If we don't trust that we will be paid, no contract will ever save us. Even money is a question of trust, we trust that the printed paper in our wallets will be accepted by others. There are practical ways of looking at trust-building:
Photo by star5112 Flickr CC
Matthew May speaks about the three C:s of trust:
One simplistic, put practical, way of looking at trust-building is to treat it as a bank account. You start out with a certain amount, and what you do will either grow our deplete your account.
For every act you do that earns you trust and credibility, your stack of chips grow. When you present, pitch or sell something, your account goes down. Simple enough, but there is a catch. Even if you do nothing, your account goes down. Credibility and trust are like vegetables on a shelf, they wilt. Constant care is necessary to build your account - or "ethos" as it was called in Greece at the dawn of civilization.
Confidence tricksters are likable, they need to in order to succeed, avoid being an acidental conman. Sometimes people will be disappointed even if you did your honest best. There is a fine line to be walked, one where you deposit into your "trust-account" and always use your chips on causes close to your heart - depending on how you handle the out-come, people will either trust you more or feel betrayed.
Betrayal is a deep feeling, one that maybe never goes away. For honest persons, it is a price too high to pay. The recipe for steering away from such disaster is called constant communication. To constantly update your stakeholders diminishes the risk of someone feeling betrayed.
Do you share my opinions? What are your feelings and advice on the matter of building trust?
Photo by star5112 Flickr CCConsistency, Competence and Caring
Matthew May speaks about the three C:s of trust:
Consistency. Trust requires consistency because we can’t trust anything or anyone that we can’t repeatedly count on.
Competence. Trust requires competence because we can’t trust anything or anyone that can’t solve our problem, or get the job done.
Caring. Trust requires caring because we can’t trust those we believe don’t care about us. Caring is the softer side of trust, the most intangible, and often the most difficult to demonstrate.
Think of it like a bank account
One simplistic, put practical, way of looking at trust-building is to treat it as a bank account. You start out with a certain amount, and what you do will either grow our deplete your account.
For every act you do that earns you trust and credibility, your stack of chips grow. When you present, pitch or sell something, your account goes down. Simple enough, but there is a catch. Even if you do nothing, your account goes down. Credibility and trust are like vegetables on a shelf, they wilt. Constant care is necessary to build your account - or "ethos" as it was called in Greece at the dawn of civilization.
Consider ethics
Confidence tricksters are likable, they need to in order to succeed, avoid being an acidental conman. Sometimes people will be disappointed even if you did your honest best. There is a fine line to be walked, one where you deposit into your "trust-account" and always use your chips on causes close to your heart - depending on how you handle the out-come, people will either trust you more or feel betrayed.
Constant progress reports
Betrayal is a deep feeling, one that maybe never goes away. For honest persons, it is a price too high to pay. The recipe for steering away from such disaster is called constant communication. To constantly update your stakeholders diminishes the risk of someone feeling betrayed.
Do you share my opinions? What are your feelings and advice on the matter of building trust?
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