Trust; a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability or strength of someone or something.
All of us have strengths and weaknesses.
We rely on our strengths to navigate through challenges, opportunities and everyday life.
It is our weaknesses where we need to trust others to provide reliability, truth, ability or strength to make us complete.
An example in our personal life maybe in the field of medicine. We rely on our physicians and our dentist. We place our trust in them since they have the strength and knowledge that we do not have in the field of medicine and dental care. Often it takes time for us to build a relationship with these professionals. The trust comes from their reliability, their sharing the truth, their ability to care for our needs and their strength to perform the necessary tasks to treat us.
Much is the same in business. We need to recognize where our strengths are and where our weaknesses are, then go find competent and proficient people to fill the weaknesses. Relationships are built upon trust. Much like the medical professionals we must build relationships founded upon trust. Trust is gained by being reliable, telling the truth even when it may not be popular, show ability by bringing empirical information forward and having the strength to stay true to our principles even in the face of headwinds.
I spent many years in Supply Chain. In Supply Chain you build relationships with suppliers, fellow employees and customers. Lasting relationships in all cases get built upon reliability, truth, ability and strength. Relationships are a two-way street. People need to know through witnessing our behavior that we exemplify the components of the definition of trust. As you must earn trust from others, others must earn your trust. Misplaced trust can lead to poor decision making. When misplaced trust becomes evident a change needs to be made. Those changes may be difficult yet a positive in the long run.
Business relationships between buyer and seller today often do not get the respect of the past. Today often buyers and sellers move from position to position and the individual relationships do not grow. Developing a relationship can be more difficult than in the past. That is why using empirical evidence of the value provided and derived from the relationship is important. Empirical information provides verification. Take the necessary time to understand what desired results the relationship is founded upon. Not all customers measure success in the same way. Not all buyer’s performance is measured the same way. Not all sales people performance is measured the same way. Remember trust is a two-way street. Look to earn the other person’s trust and respect by meeting their expectations.
Building trust internally with others in your organization is important. In the Supply chain role often, you are in need of other functional areas skills to accomplish the tasks at hand. Finance, Development, other functions in Supply Chain, Manufacturing…. Building trust with those you interact with within the organization is crucial to attaining desired results. In past newsletters I have written of teams, working sessions and leaving the ego at the door. Those that do make excellent team members and are often the easiest people to build the two-way trust. Why? They are reliable, they say what they will do and they do it. They tell the truth even if it is not popular, present empirical information and formulate the hypothesis and offer solutions. Trust with verification. They have strong functional ability as evidenced by the work they do and others place trust in them. They have the strength to stay true to their principles regardless of what others may think.
Trust is a two-way street. You must earn other people’s trust. Others must earn your trust. When you can’t trust someone find another person with like skills. Having trust leads to efficiency. Efficiency is confidence to act because you trust in the people that help make the decision and the decision is based upon empirical information. Trust and verify.
In all of our chosen career paths we can identify like examples to the buyer seller relationship. You all know examples of building trust, earning trust and presenting empirical evidence to make sound decisions and grow the relationships.
Trust is great when you earn it from others and others earn it from you and trust is excellent when it can be verified.
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