FPRA 2013 Annual Conference, General Session E: Cultivating Outrageous Trust, Roy Reid, APR, CPRC
By Lauren Hyer, APR
“By being a good steward of trust, you can change the way people see you,” – Roy Reid, APR, CPRC
Trust. It’s such a small word, with such an impactful meaning. It can take a lifetime to build, yet can be destroyed in an instant.
It is the foundation of our relationships, and on the surface it seems simple – you either trust someone or you don’t – but in reality, trust is complex and can take years to earn.
Roy Reid, APR, CPRC with Consensus Communications says we can improve relationships through a greater emphasis on cultivating trust. He explains that in today’s time, people don’t invest time building trust before asking for things. According to Roy, trust isn’t one big, sweeping idea, but more of a granular thing built over time.
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much,” Roy explains.
Things you can do to cultivate trust:
1) Take responsibility for your relationships. We can’t act like we rent relationships; we have to act like we own them.
Until you earn trust, you can’t effectively market to your audience. But, when take the time to invest in these relationships, it can translate into success.
2) Build trust from the inside out.
Roy mentions the “blind spot,” which is a characteristic about yourself that you may not even realize you have. However, others may see this particular trait as distracting, frivolous or even rude. Once trust is built between people, each person should feel comfortable pulling the other aside and kindly telling the other person about his or her “blind spot.”
3) Communicate consistently.
As professional communicators, we strive to communicate effectively and efficiently. Roy shares that the majority of people need to hear company info 3-5 times to believe messages.
How well do you communicate? Think about how often you call a client to see how things are going.
How often do you check in with your employees or co-workers?
Remember, the more we communicate with our audiences, the greater the opportunity to secure their trust.
4) Be a good steward of your trust.
Once you’ve created a culture of trust and committed to being trusted, don’t hand your trust out to someone who doesn’t live up to the same standards. Guard your trust. Protect it.
Four criteria needed to earn trust:
Be trustworthy: It’s the starting point to be trusted. You need to have integrity. We have to be focused on integrity and being ethical. Our integrity is all we have at the end of the day. It’s our biggest toolbox.
- Be mindful of your attitude
- Focus
- Initiative
- Insight
- Perseverance
- Excellence
- Vision
Be authentic: Make a real connection with people.
- Understand your purpose
- Respect everyone
- Cultivate candor
- Exercise forgiveness
- Be transparent
Be dependable: Build your brand.
- Engage completely in your work
- Deliver on time or early
- Give a consistent, reliable experience
- Evaluate result and improve the value
Be influential: Make a difference.
- Choose to become part of the solution and be decisive
- Make a physical and/or public commitment to your decisions
- Confront the good, bad and ugly
- Find the competence to achieve the objectives
- Have the courage to finish