Makarios Consulting Blog

Lessons From a Geezer

DO I NEED TO TRUST YOU TO BUILD THE BUSINESS?

There seems to be a lot of discussion lately around the topic of “Trust.” It ranges from trusting our government to do the right thing, to trusting our kids to take responsibility for their actions. But what does “trust” have to do with business results? Is there a need to have a level of trust in order to generate the results you seek in your business?

As an employee, you certainly want to trust that your company makes great products, sells in an ethical way and ensures customer satisfaction. As a manager, you trust that your team will do the right thing, follow the correct processes you’ve set out and all pull in the same direction to accomplish your goals. As a leader, you trust that your organization is meeting the vision you’ve set for the company and as a result…everyone wins.

TRUST IS ESSENTIAL

Every sales professional knows building trust with a prospect is critical to closing business. Considering that leadership is a sophisticated form of selling to the entire company, why would trust be any less important? It’s not…it is crucial to your success.

When trust is established between staff and leadership, the rest of the process towards successful results become LOTS easier to obtain. Follow the logic:

Trust = Ability to have conflict resolution
Trust = Enables staff to make commitments to goals
Trust = Ability for leadership to hold people accountable
Trust = Ability to achieve results faster

BUILDING TRUST

There are books, videos, blogs and research on building trust. I particularly like using the Johari Window: http://bit.ly/ai5Co8 to facilitate learning traits of others to allow them a peek into my world. By sharing what you know about yourself, and allowing others to share what they know about you will create an open and honest business environment where you can build on trust.

Even successful companies might claim they have accomplished their goals despite a lack of trust, but “trust me”…the results will come easier, faster and with a lot more fun in your business if you start with trust and go from there. Thus sayest The Geezer! In the end, Geezer’s Get It!