Here’s a quick question for you – Which superglue bonds the world together?

Go ahead, make an attempt. No, it’s not Fevicol!

It is the 5 – letter magic word called trust. It has been a subject of much research and interest personally for me.

Trust is what brings the world together. If it were not for trust, rules would have no meaning, relationships would not exist, the world would constantly be at war.

No trust, no relationships. I would assume that trust would be a high priority management skill. Unfortunately, there are a million courses on team building, conflict, collaboration which is an outcome of trust, but very few that teach you the skill of building trust.

Yes, that’s right – trust building is a skill.

I can recount many stories where the person is trustworthy but unable to build trust with his team because of his demeanor. I have also come across many people who build trust easily only to break it after sometime because they are not trust worthy (a.k.a conman)

Multiple research studies have shown that most people use these four components to trust someone:

1. Reliability – Do you do what you say you will do? Can they count on you to keep up your commitments?
2. Acceptance – Can you accept someone as they are? Are you open to new ways of thinking? Do you willingly let go of their limitations and look at the complete person?
3. Openness – Are you willing to give and receive feedback? Do you keep certain secrets from your people – which you think they don’t need to know? Are you a “mushroom” style manager – keep them in the dark and feed them?
4. Congruence – Do you practice what you preach? Do you have integrity in your actions? Do you say what you mean and mean what you say?

The important thing here is each one of us places a different importance to the components of trust.

For some it is reliability, for some it is being accepted as you are, for some trust implies being able to give feedback openly and for some others it is about saying what you mean.

It also turns out that your personality defines your key elements of trust. We have mapped the trust elements to DISC personality styles.

In our program on ‘Building Trust’ we will share with you ‘trust elements’ that work specifically for you and how to recognize this in others. We also teach you skills to adapt your style.

After all, it is the superglue that keeps the earth together.

Write to us to know more about “Building Trust” program.