Are you a trustworthy person?

Would those who know you, those who interact with you and do business with you agree with your answer? You might be surprised and even though most of us like surprises this is one surprise we could all do without.

Trust is kind of an interesting thing, we can be perfectly honest, always telling the truth and always doing what we say we will do, and still not be trusted. The fact that we’re not trusted might have nothing to do with us at all, it could just be that the other person doesn’t trust anyone. (There could be many reasons for that but this post isn’t about them, it’s about you.)

Trust is interesting in another way too: it is an incredibly valuable commodity yet it cannot be bought or sold, it can only be earned.

That’s why the wisest people in the world, even the truly trustworthy, never stop working to earn the trust of the people they encounter. They know that even the strongest trust can be fragile and they protect it with both their words and actions.

BOTH their words and actions. That to me is the single most important key to trust building – doing what we say we will do when we say we will do it.

When our words don’t match out actions our credibility is eroded and once it’s eroded enough the trust begins to go. Think of it like a shoreline, our interactions with people are like the constant movement of the waves. Our credibility is just like the shoreline, once it’s eroded it’s really, really hard to restore.

So ask yourself this question and be completely honest with yourself: Do your actions match your words? If not, you may not be as trustworthy as you think. The good news is that when your words and actions DO match your credibility level goes up and if you maintain that long enough you’ll win over even the most hard core doubters you meet.