Growing Trust - A Workplace Competency
Through the pandemic, as debates about the ethics of leaders raged, we all experienced a collective loss of trust.
Trust is essential for belonging, community, vulnerable communication, emotional safety, growth, healing and love.Prior to the pandemic there was, generally, an implicit trust of people in helping professions. You have all experienced that this has changed. People in authority positions and helping professions have a new starting point with their clients and, as a result, must increase their capacity to build trust.
Growing trust, especially for leaders and helping professionals, is a workplace competency that requires your time and attention.
There are some excellent books about trust: The Speed of Trust by Stephen Covey, The Thin Book of Trust,An Essential Primer for Building Trust at Work by Charles Feltman and Dare to Lead by Brené Brown. I’m sure you know more!
I want to share from Charles’ Feltman’s, Thin Book of Trust:
The 4 Distinctions of Trust
Care is the assessment that you have the other person’s interests in mind as well as your own when you make decisions and take actions. Of the four assessments of trust, care is in some ways the most important for building lasting trust. When people believe you are only concerned with your self-interest and don’t consider their interests as well, they may trust your sincerity, reliability and competence, but they will tend to limit their trust of you to specific situations or transactions. On the other hand, when people believe you hold their interest in mind, they will extend their trust more broadly to you.
Sincerity is the assessment that you are honest, that you say what you mean and mean what you say; you can be believed and taken seriously. It also means when you express an opinion it is valid, useful and is backed up by sound thinking and evidence. Finally, it means that your actions will align with your words.
Reliability is the assessment that you meet the commitments you make, that you keep your promises.
Competence is the assessment that you have the ability to do what you are doing or propose to do. In the workplace this usually means others believe you have the requisite capacity, skill, knowledge, and resources to do a particular task or job.
I encourage you to take these distinctions of trust and discuss them with your team. Start the snowball; the more we talk about trust, the more awareness we build, the more we increase our capacity for trusting relationships.
How can you demonstrate competency in these areas to grow trust with your clients?
How are you showing up to the clients you serve?
Where are your strengths? Areas for development?
Who can you talk to about growing trust on your team?
Trust is grown from the seeds of kindness, vulnerability and connection one small moment at a time.
If you are interested in a further conversation about growing trust, I’d love to chat!