 How
good is your reputation?
Emotional appeal--trust,
admiration, respect and general good feelings--is
the driving factor in how people rate companies
reports The Wall Street Journal, based upon a
survey conducted by Harris Interactive Inc., an
Internet-based market-research firm, and the
Reputation Institute, a research group. The survey
showed that while advertising can be effective in
getting a message across, it doesn't necessarily
change opinions.
The formula for both
personal and corporate success is:
Success
= Human Capital (what you know) X Social Capital
(who you know) X Reputation (who trusts you).
That
is why trust matters.
Receive
our Podcast:
http://coachingtip.blogs.com/coaching_tip/rss.xml
or
get Free
Monthly Coaching
Tips!
by entering your name and email address
below:
So,
what is trust and how is it built?
Researchers John Cook and
Toby Wall define trust as "a willingness to ascribe
good intentions to and have confidence in the words
and actions of other people." This willingness
will, in turn, affect the way in which one behaves
toward others. We all need to depend on trust--a
leap of faith--when we do not have all the
information about a person or situation and cannot
completely control the outcome.
When we trust a person or
organization, we assume that the benefits of our
relationship with them will outweigh any costs to
us. The importance of perception in the development
of trust and mistrust cannot be overstated because
our perceptions often turn into self-fulfilling
prophecies. When we mistrust someone, we are more
likely to look for, find and remember incidents of
breach (even in the absence of an objective breach)
because it is consistent with our prior
perceptions. Similarly, when we trust someone, we
are more likely to overlook, forget or not
recognize an actual breach when it
occurs.
Since our decision to trust
or mistrust is both a rational decision and an
emotional reaction (one not only thinks trust, but
feels trust), trust-building is critical to
managerial effectiveness, as well as corporate
effectiveness. You, and the organization you work
for, should clearly work on creating
trust-sustaining mechanisms that promote trust
throughout your work environment and personal
life.
Receive
our Podcast:
http://coachingtip.blogs.com/coaching_tip/rss.xml
or
get Free
Monthly Coaching
Tips!
by entering your name and email address
below:
Becoming A
Trusted Advisor: Successfully Growing Your
Business*
by Coach Meri Dembrow,
ULTRA CONSULT, LLC meri10@mediaone.net
(734) 657-0630)
Do you want more business?
Do you want more quality business? Do you want any
of the following: longer and richer client
relationships, more referrals, on-time payment,
your work to make an impact?
If you answer yes to any of
those questions, then become a Trusted Advisor. To
do this, let’s look at three specific
components of a trust relationship: earning trust,
giving advice effectively, and building
relationships.
Before we look at the three
specific areas of trust, let’s take a step
back and look at the big picture. Why bother with
trust at all? Probably, many people can and do get
clients by using slick selling techniques, and they
probably get clients to pay large sums of money.
But they probably also burn through clients, and
never fully satisfy themselves or fulfill their
client’s needs. To fully engage yourself, and
engage a client, I would strongly assert that
creating a true trust relationship – becoming
a Trusted Advisor – is simply the right thing
to do. It allows you to look clients in the eye,
allows you to change, expand, grow, and try new
things, and it allows you to sleep well at
night.
Let’s look at the
first part: earning trust. Trust must be earned
and deserved. As a Trusted Advisor, you must be
thinking, "I will answer your questions directly
and truthfully, even if it means losing a chance at
your business." Earning trust isn’t
instantaneous; rather, it grows and evolves over
time, and it is personal, rational and emotional.
Earning trust is intrinsically about perceived
risk, about asking the tough questions, about
taking and allowing chances to be taken and, it is
different for the client than it is for the
advisor. How trustworthy have you been in your
relationships, with clients and in your personal
life? We must work continuously to convince others
that we are truly worthy of their trust.
Once the trust
relationship has begun, and simultaneous to its
growth, we can look at the next part of becoming a
Trusted Advisor: giving advice effectively. A
good process to follow is to 1) give options, 2)
educate and discuss each viable option in depth, 3)
give a recommendation, and 4) let the client
choose. By giving options, or adding to the
client’s list of options, the Trusted Advisor
is showing their level of active listening and
awareness. Education, options, and discussion all
add to the client’s level of understanding and
comfort, and lead to the best possible decision
being made. Of course, beware of preaching or
telling - a Trusted Advisor must be helpful as well
as right. Think about it.
As trust grows over
time, the Trusted Advisor must be aware that a
relationship is building. To ensure that a
strong and vital relationship is building, there
are distinct principles that should be used.
Basically, be an involved, invested, and engaged
human being. Specifically, here are 11 key
principles you should use: 1) go first, 2)
illustrate, don’t tell, 3) listen for
what’s different, not what’s familiar, 4)
be sure your advice is being sought, 5) earn the
right to offer advice, 6) keep asking, 7) say what
you mean, 8) when you need help, ask for it, 9)
show an interest in the person, 10) use
compliments, not flattery, and 11) show
appreciation.
Earning trust, giving
advice effectively, and building relationships are
3 essential components to becoming a Trusted
Advisor. Successfully using these components will
allow both greater depth of personal relationships
as well as wider breadth of business issues. Your
client engagements will move from service- or
needs-oriented to relationship-based, and,
ultimately, to trust-based. The relationship
becomes human and very personal. Trusted Advisors
believe that there is a distinction between a
business and a private life, but that both lives
are very personal and human. Trusted Advisors
recognize that refined skills in dealing with other
people are critical in business and in personal
life; the two worlds are often more alike than they
are different, and for some, they overlap to an
extraordinary extent.
* Based on the
book, The Trusted Advisor, by David H.
Maister
Only
you know what's important in achieving your
vision of success. However, we all seek
shared outcomes to provide a foundation for
where we want to be. Here is one client's
definition of the foundation for his
success:
"Have
you ever watched, listened, and felt someone
tuning a guitar or other string instrument?
That is what it is like to have the good
fortune of connecting with John Agno. He is a
living tuning fork and you're that string
instrument. Today, I have greater self
awareness, am more in step with my calling,
and better able to appreciate the journey,
including the valleys, than ever before.
Thanks, John for helping me get attuned with
my LifeSignature."
You, too,
can drastically increase your chances of
succeeding in business and life when you
learn
from a coach or
mentor
– someone who once stood in your place
and overcame all obstacles to earn success
and happiness.
The common
thread throughout history has been that you
learn mastery performance from the master.
Whatever quality or skill you want to
develop, you "get it" by hanging out with
people who have it.
Albert
Einstein once said, "We should take care not
to make the intellect our god; it has, of
course, powerful muscles but no personality.
It cannot lead; it can only
serve."
Leaders
know and science has discovered
emotionality's deeper purpose: the timeworn
mechanisms of emotion allow two human beings
to receive the contents of each other's
minds. Emotion is the messenger of love; it
is the vehicle that carries every signal from
one brimming heart to another.
Leadership
happens in a series of interactive
conversations
that pull people toward becoming comfortable
with the language of personal responsibility
and commitment.
That is why
leadership development is not an event. It is
a process of participating in respectful
conversations where the leader recognizes his
or her own feelings and those of others in
building safe and trusting relationships.
For human
beings, feeling deeply is synonymous with
being alive.
After
receiving leadership coaching tips for a
year, here is what three subscribers had to
say:
"I have
enjoyed reading the tips. I find they provide
insight in dealing with both my personal
issues, as well as, my professional career.
Many of them help when dealing with
employees. I think the tips will help anyone
who is interested in or already in a
leadership position. As leaders, we must hold
ourselves to a higher standard, than we hold
our subordinates, in order to set the example
we want them to work toward."
"I have
enjoyed the self coaching tips and have used
them in my own internal corporate mentoring.
I have also passed them on to others because
they are succinct and
beneficial."
"Self
coaching tips have helped me a lot. I have
never missed one in this one year. It does
not take much time to read them. It is short
and informative. It has helped me to
understand myself and concentrate on my
improvements."
"I am
constantly amazed at how God seems to know
JUST WHAT I NEED, and very often your message
is JUST WHAT I NEED at the time. Thank you so
much for making a difference in my, and
others' lives."
Subscribe
to low-cost daily
...or... weekly
success
secrets from world-class teachers...or...just
take
a 30-day test
drive.
Test
Drive
our daily leadership tips for only $3.95 for
30 days.
To develop
your leadership ability through one-on-one
leadership coaching, please visit:
www.CoachThee.com
For more
information on mentoring and coaching, please
visit: www.MentoringandCoaching.com
For more on
mentoring and coaching tips, please visit:
www.MentoringandCoachingTips.com
To get to
know yourself better, please visit:
www.SelfAssessmentCenter.com
Click for
information on self-directed
learning.
Signature,
Inc., PO Box 2086, Ann Arbor, MI 48106
734.426.2000 www.CoachThee.com
back
to home page
|
