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Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. – Stephen Covey
I’ve been reading a lot lately about how to have healthy conflict and crucial conversations, neither of which is possible without trust. Not only is trust essential to enable healthy conflict. It also provides a competitive advantage.
When a leader is highly trusted and builds a culture of trust, it results in greater retention, loyalty and innovation. This also leads to greater productivity and higher revenue.
Trust takes time and must be earned. Here are seven keys to building your trust advantage.
- Clarity. Team members are looking for you to be clear about your expectations. They want to know where you are headed and how they contribute to the success of the organization.
- Character. Author and psychologist, Henry Cloud, says that integrity is the “courage to meet the demands of reality.” This is about your character and making sure that your actions are consistent with your words.
- Connection. Building relationships is the cornerstone to connecting with team members. In order to connect with others it’s important to have empathy. It’s connecting to their reality and for them to feel as though you understand.
- Commitment. It’s essential that you make and keep commitments on a consistent basis. It enables team members to take you at your word.
- Respect. Respect is the ability to have high regard for team members, listening attentively to their ideas and valuing their input.
- Listen. As leaders we are often traveling at Mach speed. Our credibility suffers when we are not fully present and actively listening to team members.
- Vulnerability. I was challenged recently with understanding the difference between transparency and vulnerability. Transparency is about sharing information, not building trust. Vulnerability is about revealing who you are – the real you – and being able to admit your shortcomings. It’s connecting at the heart level, which builds trust.
Which of these traits are your strengths? Which do you need to spend more time developing?
