TOW#477 — Trust
“Trust is built up over years, but it can be lost in just one hour/day” — this is something my primary school teacher told me when I was in fourth grade, and it’s been stuck in my head ever since.
Nowadays, during these turbulent times, trust is so low that you could easily argue that it’s virtually non-existent. Nobody trusts anyone and even if they have to show trust, they make up excuses about why they shouldn’t believe that person. We enter into things with distrust and no matter how much someone assures us of the contrary, we simply don’t even want to think that this’ll be any different, so we simply maintain our distrustful attitude. And if something bad does indeed happen, we justify it by saying “see, I knew I shouldn’t have trusted them”, when in fact we aren’t even aware that we’re willing it upon ourselves in order to prove to ourselves that we were right all along.
So, how can we bring back or maintain trust?
- Signals — be careful about the kinds of signals you’re sending to people around you because that is how they’ll judge you. If you state your positions clearly, then that’s how you’ll be understood. Send signals of trust and a desire to have faith in other people and what you do.
- Presumptions — don’t presume, ask questions. Presumptions are the basis for every problem. And even worse, if you start out by presuming the other side is untrustworthy, then you’ll definitely encounter a problem!
- Other perspectives — be open to other viewpoints and opinions, even if they differ from your own. This doesn’t mean that you’re not always right, just that they might have something useful to tell you.
- The world you live in — don’t just live in your own little world of misconception and mistrust. The world really isn’t such a bad and rotten place to live, and if you believe that then it means that all the people living in it are also rotten, which isn’t a healthy mindset for anyone…
- Skills — develop trust skills, first to build trust in yourself and then in others. Skills of interpersonal relationships and the ability to function in a group, rather than alone; skills of open communication with yourselves, and then with everyone around you.
- Listening — listen respectfully and with full attention. Be empathetic and sensitive to the needs of those around you, and strengthen others’ trust in you by allowing them to open up to you, since they know you’ll understand.
- Credibility — admit when you make a mistake (people that are always right are irritating), admit when you don’t know something (it’s normal to not know everything) and always speak the truth (the foundation for having credibility among others). If one of this holy trinity is missing or has decreased, then your credibility is under question!
Trust is the basis for a safe and productive environment, both at home and at work, and has the power to change a lot of things. We hope that these tips will give you some useful ideas on how to move towards being more open and trustworthy. We build trust from a young age, so be sure to transmit the changes that’ll happen to you to the little ones.
Wishing you success with the changes to come,
@kalinbabusku
“Tip of the Week” Team member
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