How a Business Can Build Trust
How a Business Can Build Trust
An organization’s success depends on the level of trust it establishes with their employees, partners, and customers. Trust isn’t something you can give to people — they have to build it themselves. And because people are so protective of their time, money and relationships, it takes a lot for them to give you their trust. But if you do these things right and keep your promises — whether spoken or unspoken—you develop trust that will serve as the bedrock of any relationship.
What Are Those Things?
Trust is based on mutual respect and satisfaction, which require you to behave in a way that appeals to the other person’s best interests, says Dr. Jordan Sudberg. You do this by focusing on the needs and goals of the other person. Therefore, one of your most important tasks is to establish a common understanding among everyone in your organization as to what that individual’s needs and goals are, so everyone can act accordingly.
Tips to Build Trust to Your Business
Like in all relationships, in business, building trust is a two-way street. You will never be able to build the level of trust you want without the employee’s or customer’s active participation. But you still have to take the lead in your relationships, so that you can create the conditions that will build trust among everyone in the organization.
Here are some tips Dr. Jordan Sudberg gives to help businesses build trust with their employees and customers:
1. Keep Promises
Businesses often make promises that they don’t keep. They can do this either because they don’t have the financial capability to carry out the promise or because they simply get too busy with other things. This breeds mistrust among employees and customers and affects how satisfied they are with their relationship with the business. To build trust among your employees and customers, you need to keep all your promises.
2. Reinforce Commitment to a Path
When you make commitments to your organization, you need to reinforce that commitment by holding individuals accountable for their actions. There are many ways to do this. One effective way is for the top management to hold regular meetings with all employees during which the members assure each other of their commitment and accountability for their tasks. This process gives you the opportunity to discuss the positive and negative elements of your organization and its future. It also provides a forum for employees who are underperforming to ask directly for management’s help in achieving their goals.
3. Build mutually beneficial relationships
In the end, there are only two kinds of relationships: win-lose alliances or mutually beneficial partnerships. You need to create cooperative relationships with your employees and customers. You can do this by establishing a shared vision and mission, as well as a road map that outlines how to accomplish that vision. When you do so, your employees will become committed to achieving the goal and their commitment will be held accountable.
4. Seek to Understand, Not Simply Command
Relationships break down when there is no understanding between the people involved. A good relationship requires that you seek to understand what your employees, partners or customers want, need and desire first of all, before you can respond appropriately. The result of this is that they will have confidence in you, which will be reflected in the way they treat you. They will also appreciate your trustworthiness and honesty – two qualities that are essential for building trust at work.
Bottom Line
Building trust takes time and effort. It requires you to be consistent and communicate with the people involved. By doing so you will earn their trust through your actions. Once the trust has been built the result is a relationship that’s beneficial to everyone involved hence a successful business.