#168: Building trust at work

How do you build trust? Explaining it is easy, but doing it can be difficult for many of us.

Why? Because building trust requires that you constantly and consistently present who you really are, your truth, so that everybody knows what to expect of you.

In the work place, this boils down to two words: no surprises. You must never commit the trust-destroying sin at work of over-promising and under-delivering. Alignment between what you say and what you do over time is critical. That is the basis of trust in the work place.

If you are consistent in how you behave, and in how you enact your values and norms, then your colleagues know what to expect. They can predict how you will react and this insight enables them to decide how much to rely on you.

One last point. If you show that you don’t trust others, don’t expect them to trust you. Your not trusting makes other people suspicious.


I’m james@nonsenseatwork.com

Copyright: 2008 James Henry McIntosh

James can be heard on Public Radio, 88.9 FM WCVE, Richmond VA.
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