Building Trust. It's both Simple & Hard

If you start from the premise that trust is essential to strong relationships and strong relationship are essential to healthy, high-performing teams, we can easily draw the conclusion that trust is foundational. Building trust is simple. And building trust is hard.

It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen. - John Wooden

Stephen M.R. Covey tells us that trust s a combination of Integrity & Intent. The problem is, no one can see these directly, they can only see what we do and hear what we say. Other people infer our integrity (whether our actions align with our words) and our intent (what we value) from what they observe. By acting in ways that align with our words, demonstrating our values in our actions and showing others that we value them, we build trust. It's the little things that are part of every action and interaction that build up our trust over time. It's simple, right? The problem is that our deposits add up much more slowly than our withdrawals. When we act in conflict with our values or lack follow-through with our commitments, we erode trust much more quickly than we build it up.

Every interaction we have is an opportunity to reinforce or erode the trust we've built in a relationship. It's simple . . . and it's hard. The good news, we can do hard things. In fact, if we want to lead well, we must.