10 Ways to Increase Your ‘Trust Rating’

Orginally published on Tuesday, January 09, 2007 at 1:02 PM
by Todd Rhoades

Want to increase the level of trust in your leadership? There are practical things you can do to enhance the likelihood that people will decide to follow you. Social psychology researcher Robert Hurley, writing in Harvard Business Review, offers these 10 suggestions, which each address a specific personality characteristic that sometimes prevents people from developing trust.

1) If people have a naturally low tolerance for risk, invest more time in communicating and in evaluating processes apart from results—and figure out how you can provide some sort of safety net.

2) If people require more time to build trust, factor this in. Improve confidence through constructive coaching instead of harsh discipline.

3) If people have less authority or lower positions than you, avoid being forceful or coercive, and where possible, give them choices.

4) If there’s a high risk and people feel insecure, take more time to raise comfort levels, and find ways to reduce the risk, if possible, while remaining honest.

5) If people lack trust because there are few similarities between you, use “we” more than “I,” and emphasize what you have in common.

6) If people lack trust because they don’t think their interests will be served, emphasize the goals of the group, the purpose of the organization, and, if possible, find ways to accommodate others.

7) If people are unsure because they think you may be self-serving as a leader, find ways to demonstrate genuine concern for others, and go out of your way to sacrifice personal concerns.

8) If people lack trust because they don’t think you’re competent, work on areas of concern, admit weaknesses, and delegate to more gifted people.

9) If trust is lacking because people see inconsistency, make sure you under-promise and over-deliver. Don’t make excuses or pass the buck.

10) If trust is low because communication is fuzzy or incomplete, increase the amount and frequency of communication, and seek informal ways to connect with people and build rapport.

The big picture here is that there are multiple ways we as leaders can go about increasing the level of trust people have in us. But more often then not, it should be more intentional than it usually is.

Alan Nelson is the executive editor of Rev! Magazine (www.rev.org), the author of a dozen books, and has been a pastor for 20 years. You can reach him at . You can subscribe to the Rev! Weekly Leadership Update here.

SOURCE:  Rev. Magazine

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