Warren Bennis said, “Integrity is the basis of trust… it is one quality that cannot be acquired, but must be earned. It is given by co-workers and followers, and without it, the leader can’t function”.
Trust provides emotional structure. It is established when words and deeds are congruent. Trust also develops when people are safe and secure. When thoughts and ideas are shot down ridiculed, it doesn’t long to realize that the climate is neither safe nor conductive to making yourself vulnerable. In such a situation, what is needed is careful listening and understanding of other people’s perspective. If you really want to enjoy the beauty of relationships, frame them with trust. So trust is the height of any relationship.
Trust is the result of a risk successfully survived. When others trust us, they truly take a risk. But with each successive time people put their trust in us and we don’t let them down, we reduce the risk and build the relationship. If you desire to build your trustworthiness – and as a result, your relationships, remember truths about trust.
Trust begins with yourself. Shakespeare wrote, “This above all: To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man”. If you are not honest with yourself, you will not be capable of honesty with others. Self-deception is the enemy of relationships. it also undermines personal growth. If a person does not admit his shortcomings, he cannot improve himself.
But one of the realities of life is that if you can’t trust a person at all pints. You cannot trust him or her at any point. Many people today believe that they can cut corners or compromise their values in one area of life and it won’t affect another area. But character doesn’t work that way. And neither does trust. The promise is that you can’t have one set of ethics for your business life and another for your personal life. You must be what you are in all aspects of life. Keep asking yourself whether you have undermined trust. If so: apologize, ask yourself why you broke trust than to lose it, and finally, remember that trust is restored by deeds, not just words.
