“Trust takes years to build, seconds to lose, and forever to repair” – Anon

There are three key steps involved in building trust. These include:

1. Make – making public a clear, defined commitment that is specific, measurable and has a clear date set to it. This removes ambiguity and holds you to a commitment to which you can be held accountable.  Yes, you as the manager or leader are making yourself accountable to your reports or peers. Making a commitment builds hope.

2. Keep – demonstrating the fact that you have met your clearly articulated commitment as previously defined. You need to actively publicize this.  People need to know that you have done this, you cannot assume that they will know because you have done it.  Furthermore, proving that you are keeping your commitments gives you right to expect them to reciprocate i.e. they will make, keep and repeat in terms of their own commitments.

3. Repeat – this develops consistency, belief in you, and proof that your actions mirror your words. When people see a discrepancy between what you say and what you do, they will always follow what you do.  By repeating this process you are establishing and creating an avatar for others to model their behaviors on.

Demonstrate these three behaviors on a regular basis so that you can not only create trust, but you are seen to be more trustworthy.

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