Increase Trust Quickly and Impressively
Opening the door just enough to gain opportunities to be a high-impact professional and person
Slow, inadequate trust building and breaching it is not a recipe for professional or personal success and a desirable peace of mind for the vast majority. Yet that’s what many people either recklessly or unintentionally do. The costs are, as should be expected, extremely high, even seemingly punitive, within any type of relationship.
Taylor Crane, the founder at Fractional Jobs, recently wrote about it in a way that may be helpful for people to gain a better understanding.
He writes about how, at the beginning of a new professional engagement, “trust is (usually) quite low to start.” This goes for our personal life too, as we regularly learn.
This is certainly not an absolute because trust can be solid or high early, yet when other people don’t know us or we don’t know them, trust is, if not low, then uncertain.
Yet let’s proceed with Crane’s assertion that trust is low at first. This article will focus on a different context than he wrote about yet will dig and point to what is important.
Certain professionals in certain jobs or industries, just like in our lives away from work, can have “a huge trust hill to climb,” as Crane wrote. It can be or appear to be so steep and lengthy that it feels next to impossible to achieve.
That can often become discouraging or maddening.
What’s important to think about and come up with answers to in response is what Crane asked of readers.
“What are you doing to increase trust quickly?”
Let’s briefly break down and focus on the critical words and phrasing in that sentence: increase trust, quickly and “what are you doing?”
Let’s elaborate:
“Because, the sooner you can build trust, the sooner you can do high-impact work,” Crane wrote. “And the sooner you do high-impact work, the sooner companies in general realize that… (what you do and how you do it) can be a trustworthy solution to their problems.”
You know you’re skilled, competent, reliable and trustworthy. People who know your work and professional conduct well realize you are those things as well. Strangers or relative strangers don’t however.
We’re asking them to take a leap of faith (risk) and that can be unsettling or scary, depending on what’s at stake financially, reputation-wise or financially.
We need to provide trust capital in a social setting that maybe we can’t fully offer for desired certainty, at least not without opportunity.
Back to Crane’s points: we have to focus on expedient trust building so that people feel it quickly, to a sufficient level, where receptiveness and opportunity are natural resulting byproducts that open doors and keep them open for us, so that we can prove that their trust was well placed and in one or more ways was profitable, tangibly and intangibly, in ways that satisfy them.
So, again, what are you and I doing, to increase trust, promptly (quickly)?
Crane listed his best “tips.” I will share and elaborate on the ones that most stand out to me and that I believe can assist you in building stronger, immediate credibility and thus, trust, as opportunity creators.
First, do what it takes to prove in highly observable areas that are meaningful to people that you can be trusted, in ways that they have expressed or you presume with a high degree of probability, are concerns for them.
Crane wrote, for example, to keep track of billable hours, which should communicate what you are specifically doing in your time, to move the needle positively in ways that matter most to them.
That’s just one example, of course. You can ask and learn what people in your professional and personal life are most scrutinizing and want peace of mind regarding.
A second recommendation that Crane makes is sending a weekly recap of your accomplishments. If it’s concise, clear and with the important details that mean the most to people with whom you are serving, this will likely build peace and trust.
Next, responding to messages, promptly, reveals to people that you prioritize, respect and value them. You don’t have to do it. That’s everyone’s personal decision. It’s a value offering, though.
Most people won’t abuse this professional and personal courtesy and they will, consciously or subconsciously, trust you at a higher level for doing conducting yourself in this manner, if you communicate with professionalism, understanding, patience and helpfulness.
“Respond quickly,” Crane advised. “Make it your differentiator.”
Get noticed for doing what others aren’t doing and create positive feelings in other people to whom you benefit from developing, building and maintaining trust.
Understand the Social Contract
“There’s the contract agreement you sign and then there’s the social contract you, (figuratively speaking) sign,” Crane wrote. “Understand both and understand the social contract is 10x more relevant to get right than the actual contract.”
This social contract is how you respectfully interact with people. This is our promise to ourselves for showing up every day, all day, to earn, build, respect and keep their trust.
There is tremendous value in taking bold steps to responsibly, ethically build trust quickly in ways that resonate with other people and then keep at it, as a standard and habit. As most all of us know, most people don’t conduct themselves in this manner, even though it is a deep emotional “want” and a reasonable expectation.
Stand out. Gain greater influence and opportunities in your work and personal life. Deliver or exceed on professional and social expectations and earn the wins.
Be known for being reliably trustworthy and at a higher level than other people.
Let that become another, powerful reputation asset.
Michael Toebe is a reputation and communications specialist at Reputation Intelligence and writes the Reputation Intelligence newsletter here on Substack and on LinkedIn. He helps individuals and organizations proactively and responsively with matters of trust, stakeholder relationships and reputation.
He has been a reporter for newspapers and radio, hosted a radio talk show, written for online business magazines, been a media source, helped people work through disputes, conflicts and crises and assisted clients with communications to further build, protect, restore and reconstruct reputation.
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