Trust is often treated as a factor that is either there or not and is difficult to change. Personal contact creates a substantial trust capital that is otherwise very difficult to achieve in business. In my experience, the personal relationship is an essential, but not the most important, an ingredient in gaining and maintaining trust.
My article points out that trust should be seen as a skill developed through mindfulness and awareness. Stephen M. R. Covey: The Speed of Trust. In his book, Stephen Covey (Stephen Covey author of The Speed of Trust) illustrates trust as five circular waves, starting with ourselves, flowing into our relationships, spreading to the organizations we are a part of, impacting the marketplace finally affecting society as a whole. If we want to be trusted, we must first work on ourselves, then on our relationships, and finally, on the groups, we are part of (page 67).
1. Self-confidence
To trust others and gain the trust of others, we must first of all faith ourselves. To be self-confident, we need to have a clear set of values and a way of living in line with them. We need to know the principles we want to live by and align our actions accordingly. The results we achieve will give us credibility.
It is the little things that matter most. The consistency between words and actions is essential. To be credible, we must first and foremost be honest."What we say we will do and everything we do is connected. We dare to act by our values and our beliefs" (p. 81).
Character qualities become essential when you want to work with someone long-term. This is undoubtedly what is most needed to maintain trust.
We were at the end of a six-month project when we had successfully demoed our development, and the client had signed the certificate of completion. We left the site relieved, even smug. In this state, we commented on the events in the lift, in which there was one other person besides us, and echoed what we had heard to the client. Inexplicably, we also voiced our criticism in a situation where it had no place. In a minute, we lost the trust that we had gained through half a year's hard work. We have delivered results in vain; we have proved our competence in vain if we have acted dishonestly once: with one wrong gesture, we have lost our hard-won trust in one fell swoop.
Competence is another essential pillar of self-confidence. We need to recognize what we are talented at and the qualities that inspire confidence. We can use the results to support our competence, which is the quickest way to increase (self-)confidence.
The combination of competence and character gives us credibility. The former builds trust, the latter maintains it.
2. Peer trust
Stephen M. R. Covey outlines 13 patterns of behavior to look out for to increase our social confidence. Below I have summarized three points that we also try to keep in mind in our company.
1. Give respect! Give trust! Be loyal!
Our basic rule is that we don't pick on anyone. Especially not the customer. This is a critical attitude, increasing trust both with clients and with staff. It's easy to hiss when we encounter incomprehension. We immediately give in to the need to look for the weaknesses of the third party, in tandem with the understanding partner or colleague. In my experience, this insidiously infects all levels of human relationships. The first step in building a customer-centric culture is to pay attention to this. Criticism is only formulated when we put forward how the perceived problem can be improved. If we decide to take on a job, we do so on a sound basis. We decide whether or not we want a new job opportunity along the lines of customer qualification in line with the company strategy. If we are unsure about the project, we recommend another company to carry it out. In the last six months, we have achieved that we have only worked on work that we can believe in and identify with. The more mature a company we become, the more we can validate that approach, and the more we operate according to that approach, the more mature a company we become. This is how we can achieve confidence in the results of our work and loyalty to our customers.
2. Create transparency!Clear expectations! Practice accountability!
In our company, we usually implement our work in two weekly iterations. Together with the client, we decide which tasks we will work on at the beginning of each iteration and weigh up the tasks. At the beginning of the iteration, the client is aware of what he will get at the end and how much it will cost him. We provide a test environment during the development to track what features we have completed. At the end of the iteration, we will demo the tasks you have completed and ask you at each step if this is what you expected and if you are satisfied with what you have seen. We issue an invoice based on the accepted deliverables, which are only for the tasks that they have approved.
I have three comments on this:
- most of the clients do not work this way by default, so there is no need for this kind of accounting,
- even the most unpromising project can become a success story if you follow through with the implementation,
- I have never met a client who did not want this level of transparency.
3. Get results! Improve! After each demo, we look back at the past period and formulate our problems. We do this together with the client and separately at the group level. This is when criticism occurs, and issues need to be stated, even if we don't see a solution. The client should complain if they feel things are not going well, and we should respond to their comments.
In general, consistency is the defining skill in building peer trust. Consistency is the defining skill. If you take on something, you have to follow through. That's what it takes to be effective, which is the cornerstone of trust.
Related book
Stephen M. R. Covey: The Speed of Trust
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