Trust builds bridges that connect issues, ideas, strategies, resources, solutions and—most importantly—the people who share them. The greater your trust level, the greater are your chances of getting along and getting ahead despite and because of differences.
Grow your circle of trust, one step at a time. Trust is built and sustained one choice and one action at a time. These ideas can help you learn to trust more successfully:
Look for opportunities to expand your trust radius in situations where no harm is done if it doesn’t work out. Act is if you know things will be handled properly, and move on to your next priority. Gradually and safely open your heart to readily and instinctively extend trust in each new interaction.
Be accessible to increase the perception and extent of trust you give and receive. Time spent with you feels more valuable and longer if you sit down and avoid checking your watch or holding the door open ready to leave. State how much time you have, and if more time is required, stay longer or schedule another meeting. The resulting perception is that you will give ample time to listen.
Remember to look with your heart—not just with your eyes. We rarely feel exactly the same way others do in any particular circumstance. Less obvious is that we also don’t see things the same way as others. Ask questions to clarify and build a bridge of trust between your perspective and theirs.
Reach out to others in ways they prefer learning and talking about things that matter. Recognize and adapt to others’ unique styles of perceiving new ideas and interacting. Meaningful shared dialogue is essential to build and sustain trust.
Transparency, believability and credibility establish trustworthiness. Sometimes as a business owner your role requires decisions that seem to break another’s trust. By allowing and accepting the resulting responses, demonstrating care and transparency, you can work through such times and even create greater trust and loyalty as an outcome. Disagreements magically resolve when minds and hearts are open and trust is maintained.
By trusting yourself, you can trust others and receive their trust. When doubt and change produce fear and undermine your confidence, you either trust your heart to go forward or you lose ground. Sometimes people break your trust—it’s inevitable—and your business survival depends on you bouncing back and creating new lines of trust.
Expand and extend yourself, using trust as the glue that holds your relationships together—it’s a great recipe to grow your business!
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