What can we do to not only be more honest but also promote an atmosphere of honesty around us? How can we create a steady flow of truth-telling between ourselves and the people we love most? Here are some basic elements to build trust in a relationship:
Be True to Your Word and Make your actions match your words
The purpose of building trust is for others to believe what you say. But, that building trust requires not only keeping the promises you make but also not making promises you are unable to keep.
Keeping your word shows others what you expect from them, and in turn, they will be more likely to treat you with respect, developing more trust in the process.
Learn How to Communicate Effectively With Others
Poor communication is a major reason why relationships break down. Good communication includes being clear about what you have or have not committed to and what has been agreed upon.
Building trust is not without risk. It includes allowing both you and others taking risks to show trustworthiness. To navigate this, effective communication is key. Without it, you may find the messages you’ve intended to send aren’t the messages that are received.
Remind Yourself
Building trust is a daily commitment. Do not make the mistake of expecting too much too soon. To build trust better, first, you should take small steps and take on small commitments. Next, as trust grows, you will be more at ease with making and accepting bigger commitments. Put trust in, and you would generally get trust in return.
Take Time to Make Decisions and Think Before Acting Too Quickly
Only make commitments that you are happy to agree to. Have the courage to say “no,” even when it disappoints someone. If you agree to something and can not follow through, everyone involved is worse off.
Be clear about what you have on your plate, and keep track of your commitments. Being organized is a necessary part of building trust with family, friends, and colleagues. It enables you to make a clear decision as to whether to agree to requests of your time and energy.
Value the Relationships That You Have—and Do not Take Them for Granted
Trust often results from consistency. We tend to have the most trust in people who are there for us consistently through good times and bad. Regularly showing others that you’re there for them is an adequate way to build trust.
Develop Your Team Skills and Participate Openly
When you take an active role in a team and make contributions, people are more likely to respect and trust you. It’s also imperative when building trust in a team to show your willingness to trust others.
Being open and willing to make contributions and to engage demonstrates this. In other words, take what others say into consideration, show that you are listening actively, respectfully suggest your thoughts and feedback, and demonstrate that you are willing to be part of the team.
Always Be Honest
The message you convey should always, always be the truth. If you are caught telling a lie, no matter how small, your sincerity will be diminished.
Help People Whenever You Can
You should help another person, even if it provides no benefit to you, build trust. Authentic kindness helps to build trust.
Do not Hide Your Feelings
Being open about your emotions is often an effective way to build trust. Furthermore, if people know that you care, they are more likely to trust you.
Emotional intelligence plays a role in building trust. Acknowledging your feelings, learning the exercises that control, and taking productive action means that you won’t deny reality—this is the key to building trust.
Do not Always Self-Promote
Acknowledgment and appreciation play a significant role in building trust and maintaining good relationships. Understanding and appreciating the efforts of others shows your talent for leadership and teamwork and increases the trust others have in you.
On the other hand, if people do not demonstrate appreciation for a good deed, they appear selfish. Selfishness destroys trust.
Always Do What You Believe to Be right
Doing something purely for approval means sacrificing your values and beliefs. This decreases trust in yourself, your values, and your beliefs. Always doing what you believe is right, even when others disagree, will lead others to respect your honesty.
Interestingly, when building trust, you must be willing to upset others on occasion. Most people tend not to trust those who only say whatever they think others want to hear.
Admit Your Mistakes
When you attempt to hide your mistakes, people know that you are being dishonest. By being open, you show your weak side, and this helps build trust with others.
This is because they perceive you to be more like them—everyone makes mistakes. If you pretend that you never make mistakes, you will make it difficult for others to trust you because you have created an unnecessary difference between the two of you. When all that a person sees is the “perfection” you project, they likely won’t trust you.
Honesty in relationships makes us feel secure as we know where we stand. When we are honest with ourselves and our partner, we can experience the joy and enthusiasm of living in a real relationship, in which we are being chosen for who we are.
To built trust, we have to try our best!
