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Whether you are an entrepreneur, manager, salesperson, or business person, earning the trust of the people you serve is of the utmost importance. You can’t earn their trust if you’re not seen first.
Trust is the chain that binds you to others so that your ideas are respected and your suggestions are fully considered. There are four links in the chain of trust. If one of them breaks, your credibility will be lost.
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1. to be known
In business, it’s not just about who you know, it’s about who knows you. These days, we often fail to make a first impression on new partners, prospects, or job seekers. Google and LinkedIn are doing it. If your online presence doesn’t suggest who you are, you could easily be perceived as anonymous, especially if you have young professionals joining the workforce.
To be known, you need to be actively visible, discoverable, and relevant online. Search your name on Google to see what others are seeing. Then share (some of) your expertise as it relates to who you want to do business with. Remember, you need to build your digital credibility in addition to (but not instead of) networking with other professionals.
You may be afraid of exposing yourself and receiving backlash if you say something online in public and say things that don’t go well. But after I started posting more content, paying attention to my SEO keywords, and optimizing my LinkedIn profile, I can say that a lot more people know who I am and what I’m talking about.
2. To be liked by others
Favorability has many components. So, I will only touch on a few here. To be liked, start by finding ways to like other people. Always assume positive intentions unless or until proven otherwise.
Honor your time, resources, family and culture. Be personable, not transactional, by showing empathy for their unique situation. And let them see your real, authentic self. Showing a little vulnerability goes a long way.
However, when it comes to your direct reports, being respected is more important than being liked. Some department heads felt that being liked by their staff was so important that it became difficult to hold people accountable for their work. We can say that their team members underperformed. The desire to be liked led to their downfall.
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3. Reliable
Before you can expect others to trust you, they need to see you act honestly and fairly in every way. The information you share must be accurate, from reliable sources, and relevant. Expect competitors to try to sow the seeds of suspicion.
Being trusted also means doing what you say you’re going to do. In fact, take Tom Peters advice.
Share credit for victories and accept responsibility for mistakes. Praising the work of others or simply not acknowledging their contributions quickly undermines credibility.
Reliability is not morality, it’s harmony. In short, you have to walk your own story.
4. Be useful
When prices and products are on par, people prefer to do business with people they know, like, and trust. People prefer to do business with people they know, like, and trust, even when the price and product are not equal. But that alone is not enough to be reliable in today’s market.
You must be seen as someone who knows how to help others and who cares more about serving others than serving himself. I learned this concept as Service Above Self when I was the Public Image Chair of Rotary International.
Being professionally helpful means understanding complex problems, clearing the fog, and working with others to solve problems you couldn’t solve on your own. But resist the urge to play hero right away and save the day.
Albert Einstein was once asked, “If you were given one hour to solve a problem and the problem was to destroy the earth, how would you allocate the time?” He was quoted as saying, “I spent the first 59 minutes fully understanding the problem and the last minute of his actually solving it.”
RELATED: 4 Ways to Completely Destroy Trust at Work
Believing that you fully understand the problem through the eyes of others gives you the credibility to recommend the changes needed to actually fix the problem.
You may strongly believe that you are knowledgeable, friendly, always act with integrity, and have the expertise to help others achieve their goals. The question is, do they know it?
To earn people’s trust, which is essential to your success, build and maintain trust with them.