Building Trust

One of the most important components to business, relationships, healthcare, just about everything in life, is trust. Having trust is so valuable because it allows you to collaborate in a way that frees up your time and energy to focus on other things. But trust is pretty unconventional in how it exists, it’s not something you can acquire in massive amounts all at once, it is slowly built over time. It’s the culmination of many instances of trust - Consistent, dependable, and reliabiable behavior that enables a deep and genuine trust to form.

As stated in the book “Conscious Capitalism”, there are two overlooked elements of trust. The first is reciprocity. You will not be trusted unless you can trust others, so just like so many things in life you need to be the change you wish to see. The second is transparency. The more things are out in the open and accessible to others, the better you demonstrate that there’s nothing to hide. Being vulnerable and transparent allows you to be an authentic person whose intentions are trustworthy because they are on full display.

Unfortunately, as slow and difficult as it is to cultivate trust, it can be taken away in a moment. Trust is very sensitive in that way, and before taking any actions that might jeopardize the trust you have grown with someone, be sure to think through the consequences and even over-communicate to avoid creating conflict.

Be slow and deliberate about building trust through reciprocity and transparency, and hold onto that trust tightly when you’ve earned it.