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Without Truth You Can’t Have Trust

Guest post by: Anne Warfield

Article Overview: "We hold these truths to be self-evident." With that one statement our Constitution calibrates at a level of 700- enlightenment.

Without Truth You Can’t Have Trust

"We hold these truths to be self-evident." With that one statement our Constitution calibrates at a level of 700- enlightenment.

"The truth! You can't handle the truth!" With that one statement Jack Nicholson's character, in the movie A Few Good Men,falls apart on the witness stand. His men trusted him to protect them but instead, his version of the truth, corrupted him.

More than ever you can't have trust if you don't have the truth. The truth comes in sharing the facts and information with others- both the good and the bad. It comes with the ability to clearly separate opinion from fact. It comes from the ability to lay out the unknowns or obstacles as succinctly as possible so people can make the most effective decisions.

In sales, if you are going to be truthful and create trust then it means you can be going for the yes. If you are, it will cause a conflict for you with how you listen. When you go for the yes your brain starts to ONLY listen for what fits your parameters, you begin to "shade" the truth so it fits, and you don't challenge when you should. If you want clients to trust you, they need to know you will always be truthful when working with them even if it means sending them to the competitors. In the movie Miracle on 34th Street, Santa brought more business in to Macy's by sending people to Gimbles or other stores for toys Macy's was out of or didn't carry.

As a leader you can't expect to have a high trust culture when you aren't truthful about your own shortcomings. People need to see that you are willing to be candid about what you are good at and what you are working on. Only then will they be willing to be vulnerable about their own shortcomings. As Nido Qubein said, "Morals are not taught, they are modeled." People need to see your principles and morals at play so they trust the truth of who you are when they are in the room as well as when they aren't. In our leadership program we bring leaders through a Trust and Accountability assessment. In every instance they are astounded to find the trust issues they are struggling within the organization are directly correlated by the trust issues they have with each other. Change the inside and you will change the outside.

Take Action- for the next 30 days really focus on making sure you get the truthful information out. Share with people all of the parameters that can impact their decision. When you share something, carefully state what is fact and what is opinion. The more people see your ability to separate the two and not inflict your opinion as fact, the more they will see you as truthful and trustworthy.

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Article Tags: communication, leaders, presentations, sales



Related Forum Posts
Re: Essential Leadership skills - Vigilance Trust An ability to DELEGATE
Me Too - So.... - I write. Its a form of 'pull' marketing that suits me, though I'm quite an outgoing person. I know all the stuff about it not being me, 'they're just not ready yet'. Truth is I'm not good with rejection and will walk if I get too much of it - so I do it differently. Each to his own I guess. Still, I wish I had the guts to do those 500, just to say 'I did it'! Will read that article!
Re: Bad credit guaranteed home loan? - Lending money to people with bad credit was one of the biggest things that put our economy under and many lenders out of business. I'd say if you have this opportunity take it now before it goes away. Trust me, if there are any of these programs left (and don't expect a low interest rate if your credit is bad) they won't be around for ever. At ANY interest rate.
Re: How do you earn trust with an online business? - Add VALUE to your target market. How? Well depends. If your business can start by Educating the target market about how your product or Service can add value to their lives. This can be done via Video (hot right now), basic text, audio etc. I've had a lot of success with Video and am using it primarily as a lead generation tool. If done right your Content can add Value and add to your bottom line at the same time while building Trust.
Re: Do Your Prospects / Customers Trust You? - This is so true. In the software business, if you don't earn their trust in the first few days they start implementing it, they tend to just give up on using it at all.....even if they may have lost a lot of money. With software, silly glitches can have a huge bearing on your newer clients. Especially if they are brand new to software in general. The more established users understand that when you are constantly building and developing the software, there are going to be glitches along the way. Trust is a must!


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