The Secret To Business Success: Creating & Maintaining Trust

Trust. It’s a basic tenet of both personal and professional relationships. And, as a business leader, it’s imperative that you are the one instilling and upholding trust. Why is it especially important for leaders to be the ones cultivating trust? For one, nearly “50 percent of Americans say that building a trusted culture should be the #1 concern for an executive” ( The 2020 Trust Outlook). Also, trustworthiness is at the heart of credibility. Further, during this unprecedented time and as we advance further into the digital age, it’s imperative that your people are able to trust you and the business you’ve built so that you can be a future leader. Finally, in order to cultivate successful teams, leaders must instill trust so that people can realize their own capacity for greatness. Now that you know why trust is important, how should you cultivate it?

The Trust Edge Leadership Institute, from which I received my certification, has eight defining pillars of trust. By taking the necessary steps to ensure each pillar becomes a part of your organization, you’ll be able to cultivate a trustworthy organization. The first pillar, clarity, states that people trust the clear and mistrust the ambiguous ( The Case For Trust). To embed clarity into your organization, it’s essential that your mission, values, goals, and priorities are set and aligned, you have a clear way of diffusing conflict, and that you have clear, concise communication ( The Trust Edge: How Top Leaders Gain Faster Results, Deeper Relationships, and a Stronger Bottom Line). Compassion urges leaders (and others) to look beyond themselves to cultivate trust ( The Case For Trust). For compassion, remember empathy is key. Ensure you are showing compassion by listening, appreciating other points of view, noticing those around you, and serving selflessly ( The Trust Edge). It’s also important to show compassion through listening by maintaining steady eye contact, an open mind, and patience ( The Trust Edge).

Character creates trust with integrity and morality ( The Case For Trust). Character shines through decision making values, a strong personal mission statement, and team virtues ( The Trust Edge). Once you have defined the character of your organization, it’s imperative to hire on it, discipline on it, assess on it, and reward on it ( The Trust Edge). The next pillar, competency, means knowing how to do your job well ( The Case For Trust). The best ways to ensure competency is to make continuous learning a part of the lifeblood of your organization and to work with mentors ( The Trust Edge). People trust those who exhibit continued expertise. Trust also depends on commitment. Hold yourself and others accountable through goals, results, and check-ins ( The Trust Edge).

Connection is also essential to building trust as people trust those they want to be around ( The Case For Trust). Emanate positivity, “magnetic traits” like gratefulness and listening, and ask questions that will help your people ( The Trust Edge). When cultivating trust, leaders must also think about contribution — or always giving your best efforts. A great way to make sure you’re contributing is through self-care and setting your intentions. Then, to encourage the same kind of contribution from your team think about educating, empowering, and extending trust ( The Trust Edge). Finally, the pillar model builds trust through consistency, where trust is established through repeated actions.

By leaning on these eight pillars, you’ll introduce trust into your organization through sustainable and clear actions. Though it may seem daunting, by breaking trust down into these pillars you’ll be able to set a strong foundation. Once you have a company built on these pillars, sustaining trust means looking toward the future, focusing on your people, being honest, and communicating your mission ( The 2020 Trust Outlook). Unsure of where to start? As a certified coach in the Trust Edge assessments, I am passionate about helping individuals, teams, and companies develop the essential building blocks for trust.

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