12 August 2009

Building Trust (part 2)

Let’s briefly revisit Trust and building that trust, especially among those you must lead and manage.

Building trust is a great way to ensure that the people you lead will follow you unconditionally. Once you have people following you based on trust, your organization stands to benefit greatly from the leadership and guidance you are providing your followers (no matter if you directly supervise them or not).

For this revisit I want to refer back to the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. If you have not had the honor and privilege to be part of the Seven Habits training I highly recommend it. There is a quote from Stephen R. Covey that I really like, “One of the most important ways to manifest integrity is to be loyal to those who are not present. In doing so, we build the trust of those who are present.”

How does this happen? This is quite simple, as they recognize that you are not one to talk bad about those that are not present and they feel comfortable knowing you won’t talk about them behind their back. Those that are not present may or may not know that you remain loyal to them. That’s OK because the ones present will know.

Once you have gained their trust you must remain consistent and do nothing that can break that trust. Remember that the work you put in to building that trust is not something that comes easy. It takes time and it takes effort, genuine effort.

A word of warning: If you ever slip and break their trust, as a leader you are through. Whether they know it or not, you know what you did and once its out there you can’t take it back. You have violated the trust you worked so hard to gain.

Don’t hesitate, don’t compromise, just don’t do it, stay true to yourself and they will stay true to you. Isn’t Staying True what Trust is all about?


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