What’s your Trust Quotient?

Building trust can make a big difference

Building trust in your key relationships can make a big difference to your success. Don’t you agree? In a way, trust is absolutely critical for your success- it is like the blood that runs through all your relationships. Moreover, in a future networked ecosystem, trust will become even more important for success. Therefore, like EQ, you need to also focus on your TQ- the Trust Quotient!

Let’s look at five key sets of stakeholders that each of us as leaders deal with. Starts with your team- do they trust you? If they do, they would go to any lengths for you. As my old boss used to say, the ‘team will walk on water’ if they trust their leader. Then your boss- if there is lack of trust here, that’s serious- you better start looking elsewhere! Then come your peers- once again, their trust will help you get a lot done, despite conflicting priorities at times. Your customers (let’s say all your external business partners)- trust here is paramount to getting business deals done. In Professional services like consulting, and in B2B sales, trust is what clinches the tight deals.  And lastly, your Board. If you are in a senior position like a CXO, especially a CFO or a CHRO, the trust of the Board is important, and you have to make efforts to build that.

So, we know trust is important- but how do we build it? Here are a couple of points for us to think about.

‘Say-do Ratio’: I had dynamic boss, and he had a favourite measure- the ‘say-do ratio’. Reflect on your ‘say-do’ ratio. How much you promise you will do, versus how much you actually do! Keeping your word helps build your credibility. However, over time people will know you, and adjust for your say-do ration, and calibrate accordingly. Another related phrase to the ‘say-do ratio’ is ‘walking the talk’- don’t preach something to people, and not do it yourself- a sure-fire way to lose trust, especially with your team.

The second idea on trust is something I borrowed from Steven Covey, from the 7 Habits. Similar to the emotional bank account that Covey talks about, with every individual you build a ‘trust bank account’. It is built up by regular actions you do, and your everyday interactions. Over time, as your actions meet expectations you build trust, and the ‘balance’ in your account with that individual goes up. If that ‘trust bank account’ is large, because a person has known you over time and you have always met your promise, you can draw upon that trust bank account in case you have an issue, and are not able to meet your commitments- without any change in their perception of you. The key point is that trust is built continuously through your reliability.

That brings us to the third point, one that is critical for most senior CXOs or Partners- how to be a Trusted Advisor or Partner. Here is a formula that you should consider, from Maister, Green and Galford

Trust= (Credibility x Reliability x Intimacy) / Self Orientation

I think this formula brings together all the elements beautifully. Your credibility stems from your expertise and experience, plus your ‘say-do’ ratio! You have to continuously sharpen your expertise, and work on doing the homework before you say something. Your reliability is built on how much importance you give to meeting your promises- both in terms of quality and timeliness. This is the ‘trust bank account’ at work. Lastly, it is intimacy- how much of a personal relationship have your built with your client or the other leader. Listening to them about their challenges, knowing them as an individual and also being transparent and showing some human vulnerability helps in building this intimacy. There is another T that accompanies trust- and that is transparency.

But the most important part of this equation of building trust is to have less of a ‘self-orientation’. The more you put the needs of the business and the priorities of the other person (or client) in front, the more trusting the relationship would be. If they sense you have a personal agenda and it is about yourself, and your interests, you will lose the trust. This also means talking down your ‘ego’ and putting the success of the other individual or business ahead of yourself. The ‘purity’ of your intent needs to shine through. So self-orientation has an inverse relationship with trust- the lower it is, higher the TQ!

And the last point on building trust is your own leadership brand. As a leader, have you articulated the values most important to you, and is your behaviour consistent with your values? Do people know what you stand for?  If your leadership brand shines through with consistent behaviour, the right intent, and with transparency, the chances are people will trust you more. Trust yourself first!

All of us have experienced a great level of trust, and also a lack of trust in certain relationships. Just run your mind through that- you can pick your own learnings. From my experience, the more trust you build with all your stakeholders, the higher your TQ, the easier it is for you to take the big tough decisions.

Further, there is trust at the organisation level. Organisations which have high levels of trust report better execution of their strategy - research shows that when employees feel trusted, they make more effective decisions, and you see better strategy execution. Greater trust also fosters an environment conducive to knowledge sharing and thus leads to more innovation. And to build that level of trust in an organisation, all leaders have to be trust role models, and leaders have to role model transparency and fairness!

So do focus on your TQ- it will surely accelerate your career in the long run!

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