15 Ways to Win People's Trust

Industry Week magazine of February 1, 1993 featured an excellent article about building trust in an organization.  

1. Demonstrate that you are working for others' interests, as well as your own.
2. Listen in ways that show you respect others and that you value their ideas.
3. Practice openness--the critical value for team action.
4. Speak your feelings.
5. Explain what you understand, and admit there are things you don't understand.
6. Share as much as you know about where the organization is going.
7. Show consistency in the basic values that guide your decision-making.
8. Make the right choices after viewing the alternatives that are before you.
9. Demonstrate awareness of all the key ramifications of your decision.
10. Explain why you are shifting management styles--from participative to more autocratic--when the situation calls for a shift.
11. Let people know the downside--the negatives--as well as the good news.
12. Support your subordinates' decisions.
13. Show that you know how to work with and earn the support of upper management.
14. Signal an error, a breakdown, a missed objective that will affect other people's expectations.
15. Respect old ideas while you dig for new ones.