Skip to main content

16 Ways To Build Trust

 


You can't lead if your employees, team or followers don't trust you.

Building trust takes energy, effort and constant attention to how you act.

To help build trust, follow these 16 tips, recommended by author Susan H. Shearouse:
  1. Be honest
  2. Keep commitments and keep your word
  3. Avoid surprises
  4. Be consistent with your mood
  5. Be your best
  6. Demonstrate respect
  7. Listen
  8. Communicate
  9. Speak with a positive intent
  10. Admit mistakes
  11. Be willing to hear feedback
  12. Maintain confidences
  13. Get to know others
  14. Practice empathy
  15. Seek input from others
  16. Say "thank you"

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How To Find Your True Purpose And Avoid Purpose Anxiety

  Having a sense of purpose has been scientifically proven to help people find happiness, longevity, and health. But lots of us are also worried about purpose―having purpose anxiety ―estimated to affect as much as 91% of people. That purpose anxiety is the fear of not knowing your purpose in life. “Most people understand the term purpose but have no idea how to take action to discover what it means in their lives,” says hospice medical director Jordan Grumet , author of the new book, The Purpose Code: How To Unlock Meaning, Maximize Happiness, And Leave A Lasting Legacy .   Furthermore, explains Grumet, “ It turns out that we fundamentally misunderstand purpose and the role it plays in our lives. In fact, there are two distinct types of purpose. One will lead to anxiety and disillusionment; the other will lead to connection and legacy.”   Grumet uses personal anecdotes and examples from years of his hospice work to illustrate that true contentment comes fro...

Effective Listening: Do's And Don'ts

Here are some great tips from Michelle Tillis Lederman's book, The 11 Laws of Likability .  They are all about: what to do and what not to do to be a leader who's an effective listener : Do : Maintain eye contact Limit your talking Focus on the speaker Ask questions Manage your emotions Listen with your eyes and ears Listen for ideas and opportunities Remain open to the conversation Confirm understanding, paraphrase Give nonverbal messages that you are listening (nod, smile) Ignore distractions Don't : Interrupt Show signs of impatience Judge or argue mentally Multitask during a conversation Project your ideas Think about what to say next Have expectations or preconceived ideas Become defensive or assume you are being attacked Use condescending, aggressive, or closed body language Listen with biases or closed to new ideas Jump to conclusions or finish someone's sentences

5 Tips For Generating Ideas From Employees

Your employees have lots of ideas.  So, be sure you provide the forums and mechanisms for your employees to share their ideas with you.  Hold at least a few brainstorming sessions each year, as well. And, when you are brainstorming with your employees, try these five tips: Encourage ALL ideas.  Don't evaluate or criticize ideas when they are first suggested. Ask for wild ideas.  Often, the craziest ideas end up being the most useful. Shoot for quantity not quality during brainstorming. Encourage everyone to offer new combinations and improvements of old ideas.

How To Not Say Um And How To Communicate Effectively

“ How you say something matters more than what you say,” explains Michael Chad Hoeppner , author of the new book, Don’t Say Um: How To Communicate Effectively To Live A Better Life .   This book will help you with all your daily interactions. It will help you by focusing on perfecting your delivery, one of the two primary buckets of all spoken communication. “ Content is what you say, delivery is how you say it,” adds Hoeppner.   Hoeppner has coached presidential candidates, prominent CEOs, and Ivy League deans on their communication skills. He shares his best practices in the book, which is filled with kinesthetic techniques and hands-on exercises like finger-walking to stop using filler words or silent storytelling to avoid monotone.   You will learn through a variety of simple-to-master exercises:   Four common speaking mistakes that inadvertently impact your message and delivery. How the most effective speakers use the 5 Ps of vocal variety—a unique ...

Great Business Quote

Here's a great quote from author and speaker Harvey Mackay : "When a person with money meets a person with experience, the person with the experience ends up with the money, and the person with the money ends up with the experience."

How To Lead A Family Business

Julie Charlestein  is the author of the book,  How To Lead Your Family Business: Excelling Through Unexpected Crises, Choices, and Challenges . Charlestein is also the fourth-generation leader of an incredibly successful family-owned enterprise, and she’s seen it all firsthand, including family drama in the workplace and the office politics that come with any corporation. Her book features her  unique set of strategies for navigating the distinctive challenges and choices facing family businesses. In her highly personal storytelling style, Charlestein shares her experience as an emerging leader and ultimately CEO, who has worked to earn her colleagues’ respect. She details her leadership adventure, offering actionable strategies for those leading and working within their own family businesses. The book is ideal for anyone leading a family business or starting a family business.  It’s also good for anyone taking over an existing (or new) business. More about Charleste...

Give Positive Feedback. Don't Praise.

There is an important difference between giving your employees positive feedback and giving them praise . Positive feedback focuses on the specifics of job performance. Praise, often one-or two-sentence statements, such as “Keep up the good work,” without positive feedback leaves employees with empty feelings. Worse yet, without positive feedback, employees feel no sense that they are appreciated as individual talents with specific desires to learn and grow on the job and in their careers, reports Nicholas Nigro, author of, The Everything Coaching and Mentoring Book . So, skip the praise and give positive feedback that is more uplifting to your employees because it goes to the heart of their job performance and what they actually do. An example of positive feedback is : “Bob, your communications skills have dramatically improved over the past couple of months. The report that you just prepared for me was thorough and concise. I appreciate all the work you’ve put into it, as...

How To Coach Your Employees To Increase Their Influence And Impact

Bill Berman  and  George Bradt , authors of the book,  Influence and Impact , explain the importance of helping your employees to understand what their jobs entails, and what the culture expects, so they can do the work you need from them the most.  More importantly, they say that it is better for you as a leader to  coach employees rather than supervise  them. And, as you coach, they recommend you:  Ensure the employee fully understands their job responsibilities. Pave the way for the employee to be successful. Given them the time, resources and encouragement they will need. Help them know themselves better. Consider a personality assessment by a trained evaluator so they understand their styles and preferences. Help them know the business. Ensure they know the organization’s mission, vision and purpose, business strategies and cultural norms. Help them know you. Help them to really understand what you really need from them to make you and the organiz...

When Women Lead

Prepare to be inspired by and to learn from the stories of more than 60 highly-successful female CEOs and leaders who are featured in   Julia Boorstin ’s book,   When Women Lead: What They Achieve, Why They Succeed, How We Can Learn From Them .  Boorstin shares that whether you’re a woman looking to rise in your organization or taking on a new leadership position, or a male leader looking to empower women in your organization this book is for you.   The book is divided into  three sections:   The  first section  includes: A focus on how and why women tend to build strong companies, staring with the structural challenges they must overcome to raise venture capital and scale their businesses. An Impetus for women to structure their businesses in a more purpose-drive way. How women build smart teams by embracing a growth mindset and welcoming varied perspectives.   The  second section  primarily includes: How women tackle complex probl...

Use A Board Of Advisors

David Burkus often provides valuable comments to my various Blog postings, and he's a person who effectively uses a board of advisors, instead of mentors, to help him achieve success. "I've found that in my life, it was easier and more effective to set up a board of advisors," said Burkus, the editor of LeaderLab . "This is a group of people, three to five, that have rotated into my life at various times and that speak into it and help me grow. I benefit from the variety of experience these people have." LeaderLab is an online community of resources dedicated to promoting the practice of leadership theory. Its contributors include consultants and professors who present leadership theory in a practitioner-friendly format that provides easy-to-follow explanations on how to apply the best of leadership theory. Community users can download a variety of research reports and presentations about leadership and leadership versus management. For example, a pr...