If you are an entrepreneur or business person involved in making and closing deals, one of the best things you can do is to build trust. Anyone in business values trust – the trust you have in your associates, the trust your associates have in you. Trust is essential to every deal, every agreement, and yet it is very hard to earn. Too many people have been let down or deceived in the past and so they hold back from others, and from many mutually beneficial opportunities.
How can you earn more trust so that you can do better business?
- You have to actually be trustworthy
- You have to go your own way
- You have to be humble and ask for others’ opinions
- You have to stay cool in a crisis
- Learning from mistakes
- Honesty is the best policy
You can’t fake trust. You are either trustworthy or not. People who are emotionally intelligent and perceptive will be able to tell. You want people to feel they can buy a used car from you and know it’ll pass a vehicle check with flying colours.
You must actually be worthy of trust – trustworthy isn’t just a word, after all. People are getting ever more savvy and emotionally intelligent and they can see through fakers. Being real means you have to be honest in every sphere of your life, so never run a red light, don’t stand up a date and make sure you fulfill all your commitments. When you make a mistake, own it and learn from it.
It sounds odd, but the most trustworthy people are the ones who do things their own way. If you look like you know what you’re doing, or at least you look like you believe in what you’re doing, people see a lot of integrity in you.
This doesn’t mean you boss everyone about, it means that you guide and insist in a gentle way. Firm but fair leads the way.
When someone gives their opinion, they’re effectively buying into your idea. If they feel you’ve listened and that they’re valued team members, they’ll have confidence in you and your leadership.
In business, there’s always going to be some stressful situations and if you can stay calm throughout them, people will feel more secure around you and your decisions. A crisis is a good opportunity to showcase your leadership skills and to garner trust.
With experience comes more trust, and part of that experience is making mistakes and failing once or twice. Many successful businesspeople have crashed and burned in the past and they’ve taken the lessons learned into new ventures. Your failures can teach others too, and the fact that you’ve learned the hard way and bounced back inspires confidence and respect.
You have to be honest to inspire trust – if people know you’re telling the truth, even if they don’t like it, they’ll believe in you. There’s no situation in business where lying is the best solution.
