Trust as an Essential Ingredient to any Relationship!

Author: Nida Khanam
Date: Nov 19, 2020
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Trust is currency, and the currency is economic power; Earning people’s trust is the surest and fastest route to unlimited Growth!

Many a time when we feel comfortable or uncomfortable with people or things around us it is about the TRUSTED - created or the absence of it.
Trust is not about only others but trusting yourself, your own judgments. Trust is the foundation for any relationship whether professional or personal. When we say we want to talk to someone more or don’t wish to be also an outcome of Trust generated in our first conversation or meeting.
Trust is given in the first place but later it must be earned. If it is not earned it will never establish between two people in any capacity. You can’t demand trust.
Trust when developed and leveraged, it has the powerful potential to create success in every aspect of life.

Let me briefly about the importance of Trust in a Coaching Relationship and at the Workplace.

One of the great privileges of being a coach is the opportunity to listen to and get to know other people on a very intimate level. This requires a significant amount of trust on the part of both the coach and the client. This is obvious for the client, as most of the discussion revolves around them and their challenges. The client has to feel comfortable with the confidentiality agreement, believing that their coach will maintain an extremely high degree of confidentiality. Trust is a significant issue for the coach as well to know that the client is serious about the relationship, and the opportunity to work with everything being in an open and trustworthy environment to support the client’s journey to success.
Coachee needs to feel safe, heard, and comfortable as part of trust-building between Coach and them. To put it simple why we need human to Coach and not a computer because it is effective, and emotions involved. The emotions which drive any action and positive change. Trust leads to develop new pathways in the brain for any effective human relationship whether it is Coaching or workplace or at home.
To define and understand trust, we also need to go beyond practical considerations. A deeper version involves more of an emotional response which includes feelings in people such as knowing that the other person is on “their side,” they will be treated fairly and with respect and setbacks will be viewed favourably or at least not with particularly negative consequences.
When we trust someone Oxytocin circulation increases, and Mirror neurons respond to instinctive empathy.
If we talk about Leadership and how it drives Trusts its two sides of the coin impacting a leader’s ability to inspire and motivate employees. When people trust you, they have confidence in your decisions. Even in uncertainty, they will be influenced by your leadership. That is because they trust you to do what you say you’ll do.  When there is a disconnect between a leader’s words and actions, employees are less likely to become engaged and committed to the organization.
Aligning your words and actions is a key pillar for building trust in the workplace and, ultimately, for an organization’s success. Actions matter most if you want to earn employees’ trust and engage them in the organization.
The need for trust in the workplace is a fundamental building block of any organization and can be regarded as so important as to make issues pertaining to trust capable of making or breaking an organization's culture. Yet, despite the importance of encouraging and developing it, trust is a difficult attribute to measure and a delicate dynamic to maintain.
It varies by degree, from leadership to employees, from employees to superiors, from department to department. Unfortunately, many employees are predisposed to mistrust managers as fallout not only from restructuring and downsizing but also as a result of bad experiences with managers at other jobs in other companies. Nevertheless, earning employees' trust is a key component to being a successful leader in a successful organization and is the product of daily practice and behaviors leaders demonstrate every day.

If we talk crisp the outcomes and benefits in the short & long run of Trust, it would be as follows.

  1. Trust is a key ingredient to kick’ off coaching journey & to bring continued desired results.
  2. Trust builds teamwork within the team and cross functional and also increases cohesiveness across culture.
  3. Trust produces improved efficiency & results.
  4. Trust empowers ethical decision-making.
  5. Trust increases employee engagement.
  6. Trust overcomes resistance to change.
  7. Creates a culture of open & authentic communication

Questions we can ask ourselves to know if we are on the right path to build a culture of trust.

  1. Am I listening to my employees and seeking their ideas, suggestions, and opinions?
  2. Am I open to ideas and including those ideas in the decision-making process?
  3. Am I setting and communicating consistently expectations regarding team and individual performance objectives?
  4. Am I communicating and building transparent culture of information and vision?
  5. Do I tell employees the truth & walk the talk, even when it is difficult?
  6. Am I treating everyone with fairness and respect that I expect and would like to receive, without revealing bias or judgment?
  7. Are my own career goals or a personal agenda interfering with my team's performance and my commitment to my employees' success?
  8. Do I demonstrate empathy and compassion?
About Author – Nida Khanam is a practicing Professional ACC-ICF & Brain based Certified Coach in the areas of Executive, Mindset & Career. She is also on board of HR advisory & a Speaker on different platforms. She is an IIMC & AMU alumnus who has worked in HR Leadership& transformational roles for diversified organizations like Rockwell Automation, Grohe-Lixil & JSL to name a few. Besides being a Coach, Speaker, strategic HR Advisor, she is an Entrepreneur too.
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