Benefits of Trust

No one disagrees on the value of generating trust. Less obvious perhaps are the benefits of trust.

Here’s a list my students and I have outlined over the years.

The more a (*fill in the blank*) trusts you, the more than will:

*  Client, decision maker, colleague, supervisor, team members … or, with some adaptation, friends, family, spouse

• Reach out to you for advice
• Be inclined to accept and act on your recommendations
• Come to you with more advanced, complex and strategic issues
• Reward you with more business (and repeat business)
• Share more information with you which, in turn, helps you to improve the quality of service you provide others
• Pay your bills on time and without question
• Introduce you to colleagues, team members, business acquaintances, their friends, and other key people to build your network
• Lower the level of stress in your interactions, if not minimise future potential conflicts
• Give you the benefit of the doubt
• Forgive you when you make a mistake
• Protect you when you need it … even from their own organisation
• Warn you of dangers that you might avoid
• Be comfortable and allow you to be comfortable
• Involve you early on when issues begin to form, rather than later in the process
• Trust your instincts and judgments, including those about other people

Perhaps most of all, respect you … and if so, you will feel more confident about yourself and your work.

If the topic of trust is of interest to you, please pick up the book The Trusted Advisor, written by David Maister, Charles Green and Robert Galford.  It’s one of the few business books I keep in my bookcase, and frankly I’m a fan of any book written by Maister in general.

Also, I’ve written about the Trust Equation in another post.  The simple chart below describes its four basic elements:

The three positive ones …

• Credibility:  convincing and believing
• Reliability:  doing or performing consistently well, dependable
• Intimate:  understanding, being aware of others emotions, feelings and perspectives

The one negative component

• Self-orientation:  putting yourself ahead of or demonstrating you’re more important than the other party